Holographic Interpretation of Relative State Complexity

We investigate a large-N conformal field theory (CFT) in a high-energy pure state coupled to a small auxiliary system of M weakly-interacting degrees of freedom, and argue the relative state complexity of the auxiliary system is holographically dual to an effective low-energy notion of computational cost in the bulk, i.e., to the minimal depth of the quantum circuit required to decode its gravitational dual. In light of this, using Nielsen’s approach, a new measure of quantum chaos in terms of the evolution of circuit complexity is proposed. It suggests that studying the evolution of circuit complexity of the auxiliary system can teach us about the chaotic properties of the large-N CFT. This new diagnostic for quantum chaos has important implications for the interior dynamics of evaporating black holes as it implies the radiated Hawking cloud is pseudorandom.