Complexity for charged thermofield double states

Abstract

We study Nielsen’s circuit complexity for a charged thermofield double state (cTFD) of free complex scalar quantum field theory in the presence of background electric field. We show that the ratio of the complexity of formation for cTFD state to the thermo- dynamic entropy is finite and it depends just on the temperature and chemical potential. Moreover, this ratio smoothly approaches the value for real scalar theory. We compare our field theory calculations with holographic complexity of charged black holes and confirm that the same cost function which is used for neutral case continues to work in presence of U(1) background field. For t > 0, the complexity of cTFD state evolves in time and contrasts with holographic results, it saturates after a time of the order of inverse temper- ature. This discrepancy can be understood by the fact that holographic QFTs are actually strong interacting theories, not free ones.