Scrambling time from local perturbations of the eternal BTZ black hole

Abstract

Abstract: We compute the mutual information between finite intervals in two non-compact 2d CFTs in the thermofield double formulation after one of them has been locally perturbed by a primary operator at some time tω in the large c limit. We determine the time scale, called the scrambling time, at which the mutual information vanishes and the original entanglement between the thermofield double gets destroyed by the perturbation. We provide a holographic description in terms of a free falling particle in the eternal BTZ black hole that exactly matches our CFT calculations. Our results hold for any time tω. In particular, when the latter is large, they reproduce the bulk shock-wave propagation along the BTZ horizon description.