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arXiv:1209.3087 · Classical and Quantum Gravity

Entropy and entanglement in polymer quantization

Tommaso F. Demarie, Daniel R. Terno

Published Jun 6, 2013• 6 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Polymer quantization is a useful toy model for the mathematical aspects of loop quantum gravity and is interesting in its own right. Analyzing entropies of physically equivalent states in the standard Hilbert space and the polymer Hilbert space we show that they converge in the limit of vanishing polymer scale. We derive a general bound that relates entropies of physically equivalent states in unitarily inequivalent representations.

DOI
10.1088/0264-9381/30/13/135006

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Polymer quantization is a useful toy model for the mathematical aspects of loop quantum gravity and is interesting in its own right. Analyzing entropies of physically equivalent states in the standard Hilbert space and the polymer Hilbert space we show that they converge in the limit of vanishing polymer scale. We derive a general bound that relates entropies of physically equivalent states in unitarily inequivalent representations.
The Entropic Uncertainty Relations (EUR) result from inequalities that are intrinsic to the Hilbert space and its dual with no direct connection to the Canonical Commutation Relations. Bialynicky-Mielcisnky obtained them in [1] attending Hilbert spaces with a Lebesgue measure. The analysis of these EUR in the context of singular Hilbert spaces has not been addressed. Singular Hilbert spaces are widely used in scenarios where some discretization of the space (or spacetime) is considered, e.g., loop quantum gravity, loop quantum cosmology and polymer quantum mechanics. In this work, we present an overview of the essential literature background and the road map we plan to follow to obtain the EUR in polymer quantum mechanics.
We study a proposed statistical explanation for the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of a black hole in which entropy arises quantum-mechanically as a result of entanglement. Arguments for the identification of black hole entropy with entanglement entropy are reviewed in the framework of quantum field theory, emphasizing the role of renormalization and the need for a physical short-distance cutoff. \n \nOur main novel contribution is a calculation of entanglement entropy in loop quantum gravity. The kinematical Hilbert space and spin network states are introduced, and the entanglement entropy of these states is calculated using methods from quantum information theory. The entanglement entropy is compared with the density of states previously computed for isolated horizons in loop quantum gravity, and the two are found to agree up to a topological term. \n \nWe investigate a conjecture due to Sorkin that the entanglement entropy must be a monotonically increasing function of time under the assumption of causality. For a system described by a finite-dimensional Hilbert space, the conjecture is found to be trivial, and for a system described by an infinite-dimensional Hilbert space a counterexample is provided. \n \nFor quantum states with Euclidean symmetry, the area scaling of the entanglement entropy is shown to be equivalent to the strong additivity condition on the entropy. The strong additivity condition is naturally interpreted in information-theoretic terms as a continuous analog of the Markov property for a classical random variable. We explicitly construct states of a quantum field theory on the one-dimensional real line in which the area law is exactly satisfied.
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The area dependence of entanglement entropy of a free scalar field is often understood in terms of coupled harmonic oscillators. In Schrodinger quantization, the Gaussian nature of ground state wave function for these oscillators is sufficient to provide the exact form of the reduced density matrix and its eigenvalues, thus giving the entanglement entropy. However, in polymer quantization the ground state is not Gaussian and the formalism that can provide the exact analytical form of the reduced density matrix is not yet known. In order to address this issue, here we treat the interaction between two coupled harmonic oscillators in the perturbative approach and evaluate the entanglement entropy in Schrodinger and polymer quantization. Contrary to Schrodinger quantization, we show that in the high frequency regime the entanglement entropy decreases for polymer quantization, keeping the ratio of coupling strength to the square of individual oscillator frequency fixed. Furthermore for the free scalar field we validate the area dependence of entanglement entropy in Fock quantization and demonstrate that polymer quantization produces a similar area law.
Abstract We analyze the polymer representation of quantum mechanics within the deformation quantization formalism. In particular, we construct the Wigner function and the star-product for the polymer representation as a distributional limit of the Schrödinger representation for the Weyl algebra in a Gaussian weighted measure, and we observe that the quasi-probability distribution limit of this Schrödinger representation agrees with the Wigner function for loop quantum cosmology. Further, the introduced polymer star-product fulfills Bohr’s correspondence principle even though not all the operators are well defined in the polymer representation. Finally, within our framework, we also derive a generalized uncertainty principle which resembles the one appearing in different scenarios, including theories with a minimal length.
"Polymer quantum mechanics" is the name given to a quantization scheme inspired by loop quantum gravity in which the configuration space of the theory is chosen to have a discrete topology. Polymer quantization yields a representation of the canonical commutation relations that is genuinely distinct from the conventional "Schrödinger" representation. In this paper, we summarize the main features of polymer quantum mechanics and investigate in detail the polymer quantization of systems with configuration spaces that are classically compact. We show explicitly how using the standard construction of polymer states leads to a Hilbert space of states defined on a finite graph of points. By way of example, we find the exact energy eigenvalues and eigenfunctions for a particle on a ring and a particle in a box defined on such lattices, and discuss similarities and differences from standard Schrödinger quantum mechanics. We also explore the continuum limit of states in these systems, and demonstrate in detail how the exact eigenfunctions in the position representation approach their continuum counterparts.