Diagnosing Chaos Using Four-Point Functions in Two-Dimensional Conformal Field Theory

We study chaotic dynamics in two-dimensional conformal field theory through out-of-time-order thermal correlators of the form ⟨W (t) VW (t) V⟩. We reproduce holographic calculations similar to those of Shenker and Stanford, by studying the large c Virasoro identity conformal block. The contribution of this block to the above correlation function begins to decrease exponentially after a delay of ~t*- (β/2π) logβ^2EₖEₕ, where t* is the fast scrambling time (β/2π) logc and Eₖ, Eₕ are the energy scales of the W, V operators.