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arXiv:1112.5166

Entanglement Entropy of Systems with Spontaneously Broken Continuous Symmetry

Max A. Metlitski, Tarun Grover

Published Dec 21, 2011• 75 citations
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Abstract

We study entanglement properties of systems with spontaneously broken continuous symmetry. We find that in addition to the expected area law behavior, the entanglement entropy contains a subleading contribution which diverges logarithmically with the subsystem size in agreement with the Monte Carlo simulations of A. Kallin et. al. (Phys. Rev. B 84, 165134 (2011)). The coefficient of the logarithm is a universal number given simply by $N_G (d-1)/2$, where $N_G$ is the number of Goldstone modes and $d$ is the spatial dimension. This term is present even when the subsystem boundary is straight and contains no corners, and its origin lies in the interplay of Goldstone modes and restoration of symmetry in a finite volume. We also compute the "low-energy" part of the entanglement spectrum and show that it has the same characteristic "tower of states" form as the physical low-energy spectrum obtained when a system with spontaneously broken continuous symmetry is placed in a finite volume.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.1112.5166

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We study entanglement properties of systems with spontaneously broken continuous symmetry. We find that in addition to the expected area law behavior, the entanglement entropy contains a subleading contribution which diverges logarithmically with the subsystem size in agreement with the Monte Carlo simulations of A. Kallin et. al. (Phys. Rev. B 84, 165134 (2011)). The coefficient of the logarithm is a universal number given simply by NG(d−1)/2N_G (d-1)/2NG​(d−1)/2, where NGN_GNG​ is the number of Goldstone modes and ddd is the spatial dimension. This term is present even when the subsystem boundary is straight and contains no corners, and its origin lies in the interplay of Goldstone modes and restoration of symmetry in a finite volume. We also compute the "low-energy" part of the entanglement spectrum and show that it has the same characteristic "tower of states" form as the physical low-energy spectrum obtained when a system with spontaneously broken continuous symmetry is placed in a finite volume.
In the face of mounting numerical evidence, Metlitski and Grover (arXiv:1112.5166) have given compelling analytical arguments that systems with spontaneous broken continuous symmetry contain a subleading contribution to the entanglement entropy that diverges logarithmically with system size. They predict that the coefficient of this log is a universal quantity that depends on the number of Goldstone modes. In this paper, we confirm the presence of this log term through quantum Monte Carlo calculations of the second R\'enyi entropy on the spin-1/2 XYXYXY model. Devising an algorithm to facilitate convergence of entropy data at extremely low temperatures, we demonstrate that the single Goldstone mode in the ground state can be identified through the coefficient of the log term. Furthermore, our simulation accuracy allows us to obtain an additional geometric constant additive to the R\'enyi entropy, that matches a predicted fully universal form obtained from a free bosonic field theory with no adjustable parameters.
In this paper, we derive corrections to the subleading logarithmic term of the entanglement entropy in systems with spontaneous broken continuous symmetry. Using quantum Monte Carlo simulations, we show that the improved scaling formula leads to much better estimations of the number of Goldstone modes in the two-dimensional square lattice spin-1/2 Heisenberg model and bilayer spin-1/2 Heisenberg model in systems of rather small sizes, compared with previous results. In addition, the universal geometry-dependent finite constant in the entanglement entropy scaling is also obtained in good agreement with the theoretical value.
A generic scheme is proposed to investigate the entanglement entropy for a type of scale-invariant states, valid for orthonormal basis states in the ground state subspace of quantum many-body systems undergoing spontaneous symmetry breaking with type-B Goldstone modes in two spatial dimensions and beyond. It is argued that a contribution from the area law to the entanglement entropy is absent, since the closeness to the boundary between a subsystem and its environment is not well-defined, given that a permutation symmetry group with respect to the unit cells of degenerate ground state wave functions emerges. Three physical constraints imposed lead to a universal finite-system size scaling function in the dominant logarithmic contribution to the entanglement entropy. As a result, an abstract fractal underlying the ground state subspace is revealed, characterized by the fractal dimension. The latter in turn is identical to the number of type-B Goldstone modes for the orthonormal basis states. The prediction is numerically confirmed for the SU(2){\rm SU}(2)SU(2) spin-sss ferromagnetic Heisenberg model, the SU(2s+1){\rm SU}(2s+1)SU(2s+1) ferromagnetic model, and the staggered SU(3){\rm SU}(3)SU(3) spin-1 ferromagnetic biquadratic model.
Abstract We investigate the properties of the holographic entanglement entropy of the systems in which the U(1) or the translational symmetry is broken spontaneously. For this purpose, we define the entanglement density of the strip-subsystems and examine both the first law of entanglement entropy (FLEE) and the area theorem. We classify the conditions that FLEE and/or the area theorem obey and show that such a classification may be useful for characterizing the systems. We also find universalities from both FLEE and the area theorem. In the spontaneous symmetry breaking case, FLEE is always obeyed regardless of the type of symmetry: U(1) or translation. For the translational symmetry, the area theorem is always violated when the symmetry is weakly broken, independent of the symmetry breaking patterns (explicit or spontaneous). We also argue that the log contribution of the entanglement entropy from the Goldstone mode may not appear in the strongly coupled systems.
Entanglement asymmetry is a relative entropy that faithfully diagnoses symmetry breaking in quantum states, possibly within a spatial subregion. In this work, we extend such framework to higher-form symmetries and compute entanglement asymmetry in theories with spontaneously-broken continuous zero- and higher-form symmetries. One of our central results is an entropic Coleman-Mermin-Wagner theorem, for 0- and ppp-form symmetries, valid also on subregions, which forbids spontaneous breaking of continuous ppp-form symmetries in spacetime dimensions d≤p+2d\leq p+2d≤p+2. Our theorem not only qualifies symmetry breaking, it also quantifies it: spontaneous breaking triggers a nonvanishing entanglement asymmetry that grows monotonically towards the infrared, and counts the number of Goldstone fields. Along the way, we derive standalone results concerning the entanglement entropy and asymmetry of Goldstone bosons and gauge fields. In particular, we find a closed-form expression for the Rényi asymmetries of a compact scalar field on spherical subregions in three and four spacetime dimensions, and for higher-form gauge fields in higher dimensions.
We explore the R\'enyi entanglement entropies of a one-dimensional (line) subsystem of length LLL embedded in a two-dimensional $L\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}L$ square lattice for quantum spin models whose ground state breaks a continuous symmetry in the thermodynamic limit. We first study the ${J}_{1}\text{\ensuremath{-}}{J}_{2}$ Heisenberg model (with antiferromagnetic nearest-neighbor J1>0{J}_{1}>0J1​>0 and ferromagnetic second-neighbor couplings ${J}_{2}\ensuremath{\le}0)$, breaking SU(2) symmetry in the ground state, using quantum Monte Carlo simulations. The signature of SU(2)-symmetry breaking on finite-size systems, ranging from L=4L=4L=4 up to L=40L=40L=40, clearly appears as a universal additive logarithmic correction to the R\'enyi entanglement entropies: lqlnL{l}_{q}lnLlq​lnL with ${l}_{q}\ensuremath{\simeq}1$, independent of the R\'enyi index and values of J2{J}_{2}J2​. We then confirm this result using a spin-wave analysis (with restored spin rotational symmetry) on the same ${J}_{1}\text{\ensuremath{-}}{J}_{2}$ model, as well as on the XY model, with a U(1)U(1)U(1) broken symmetry in the ground state. The high-precision spin-wave calculations are performed on finite lattices up to ${10}^{5}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{5}$ sites, allowing us to explore further nonuniversal finite-size corrections. Our results fully agree with the prediction lq=nG/2{l}_{q}={n}_{G}/2lq​=nG​/2, where nG{n}_{G}nG​ is the number of Goldstone modes, by Metlitski and Grover (arXiv:1112.5166).