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arXiv:1305.1482 · Physical Review B

Entanglement in quantum impurity problems is nonperturbative

Hubert Saleur, Peter Schmitteckert, Romain Vasseur

Published Aug 12, 2013• 33 citations
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Abstract

We study the entanglement entropy of a region of length $2L$ with the remainder of an infinite one-dimensional gapless quantum system in the case where the region is centered on a quantum impurity. The coupling to this impurity is not scale invariant, and the physics involves a crossover between weak- and strong-coupling regimes. While the impurity contribution to the entanglement has been computed numerically in the past, little is known analytically about it, since in particular the methods of conformal invariance cannot be applied because of the presence of a crossover length. We show in this paper that the small coupling expansion of the entanglement entropy in this problem is quite generally plagued by strong infrared divergences, implying a nonperturbative dependence on the coupling. The large coupling expansion turns out to be better behaved, thanks to powerful results from the boundary CFT formulation and, in some cases, the underlying integrability of the problem. However, it is clear that this expansion does not capture well the crossover physics. In the integrable case---which includes problems such as an $XXZ$ chain with a modified link, the interacting resonant level model or the anisotropic Kondo model---a nonperturbative approach is in principle possible using form factors. We adapt in this paper the ideas of Cardy et al. [J. Stat. Phys. 130, 129 (2008)] and Castro-Alvaredo and Doyon [J. Stat. Phys. 134, 105 (2009)] to the gapless case and show that, in the rather simple case of the resonant level model, and after some additional renormalizations, the form-factors approach yields remarkably accurate results for the entanglement all the way from short to large distances. This is confirmed by detailed comparison with numerical simulations. Both our form factor and numerical results are compatible with a nonperturbative form at short distance.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.88.085413

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We study the entanglement entropy of a region of length 2L2L2L with the remainder of an infinite one-dimensional gapless quantum system in the case where the region is centered on a quantum impurity. The coupling to this impurity is not scale invariant, and the physics involves a crossover between weak- and strong-coupling regimes. While the impurity contribution to the entanglement has been computed numerically in the past, little is known analytically about it, since in particular the methods of conformal invariance cannot be applied because of the presence of a crossover length. We show in this paper that the small coupling expansion of the entanglement entropy in this problem is quite generally plagued by strong infrared divergences, implying a nonperturbative dependence on the coupling. The large coupling expansion turns out to be better behaved, thanks to powerful results from the boundary CFT formulation and, in some cases, the underlying integrability of the problem. However, it is clear that this expansion does not capture well the crossover physics. In the integrable case---which includes problems such as an XXZXXZXXZ chain with a modified link, the interacting resonant level model or the anisotropic Kondo model---a nonperturbative approach is in principle possible using form factors. We adapt in this paper the ideas of Cardy et al. [J. Stat. Phys. 130, 129 (2008)] and Castro-Alvaredo and Doyon [J. Stat. Phys. 134, 105 (2009)] to the gapless case and show that, in the rather simple case of the resonant level model, and after some additional renormalizations, the form-factors approach yields remarkably accurate results for the entanglement all the way from short to large distances. This is confirmed by detailed comparison with numerical simulations. Both our form factor and numerical results are compatible with a nonperturbative form at short distance.
We consider the entanglement between two one-dimensional quantum wires (Luttinger liquids) coupled by tunneling through a quantum impurity. The physics of the system involves a crossover between weak and strong coupling regimes characterized by an energy scale TB, and methods of conformal field theory therefore cannot be applied. The evolution of the entanglement in this crossover has led to many numerical studies, but has remained little understood, analytically or even qualitatively. We argue in this Letter that the correct universal scaling form of the entanglement entropy S (for an arbitrary interval of length L containing the impurity) is ∂S/∂ ln L=f(LTB). In the special case where the coupling to the impurity can be refermionized, we show how the universal function f(LTB) can be obtained analytically using recent results on form factors of twist fields and a defect massless-scattering formalism. Our results are carefully checked against numerical simulations.
In this paper we develop a method to describe perturbatively the entanglement entropy in a simple impurity model, the Interacting Resonant Level Model (IRLM), at low energy (i.e. in the strong coupling regime). We use integrability results for the Kondo model to describe the infrared fixed point, conformal field theory techniques initially developed by Cardy and Calabrese and a quantization scheme that allows one to compute exactly Renyi entropies at arbitrary order in 1/TB in principle, even when the system size or the temperature is finite. We show that those universal quantities at arbitrary interaction parameter in the strong coupling regime are very well approximated by the same quantities in the free fermion system in the case of attractive Coulomb interaction, whereas a strong dependence on the interaction appears in the case of repulsive interaction.
Entanglement in J 1 – J 2 , S = 1/2 quantum spin chains with an impurity is studied using analytic methods as well as large scale numerical density matrix renormalization group methods. The entanglement is investigated in terms of the von Neumann entropy, S = −Trρ A logρ A , for a subsystem A of size r of the chain. The impurity contribution to the uniform part of the entanglement entropy, S imp , is defined and analysed in detail in both the gapless, J 2 ≤ J 2 c , as well as the dimerized phase, J 2 > J 2 c , of the model. This quantum impurity model is in the universality class of the single channel Kondo model and it is shown that in a quite universal way the presence of the impurity in the gapless phase, J 2 ≤ J 2 c , gives rise to a large length scale, ξ K , associated with the screening of the impurity, the size of the Kondo screening cloud. The universality of Kondo physics then implies scaling of the form S imp ( r /ξ K , r / R ) for a system of size R . Numerical results are presented clearly demonstrating this scaling. At the critical point, J 2 c , an analytic approach based on a Fermi liquid picture, valid at distances and energy scales , is developed and analytic results at T = 0 are obtained showing S imp = πξ K [1+π(1− r / R )cot(π r / R )]/(12 R ) for finite R . For T >0, in the thermodynamic limit, we find S imp = [π 2 ξ K T /(6 v )]coth(2π rT / v ), with v the spin-wave velocity. In the dimerized phase an appealing picture of the entanglement is developed in terms of a thin soliton (TS) ansatz and the notions of impurity valence bonds (IVB) and single particle entanglement (SPE) are introduced. The TS-ansatz permits a variational calculation of the complete entanglement in the dimerized phase that appears to be exact in the thermodynamic limit at the Majumdar–Ghosh point, J 2 = J 1 /2, and surprisingly precise even close to the critical point J 2 c . In the appendices the TS-ansatz is further used to calculate and with high precision at the Majumdar–Ghosh point and the relation between the finite temperature entanglement entropy, S ( T ), and the thermal entropy, S th ( T ), is discussed. Finally, the alternating part of S imp is discussed, together with its relation to the boundary induced dimerization.
Boundary impurities are known to dramatically alter certain bulk properties of (1+11+11+1)-dimensional strongly correlated systems. The entanglement entropy of a zero temperature Luttinger liquid bisected by a single impurity is computed using a novel finite size scaling or bosonization scheme. For a Luttinger liquid of length 2L2L2L and UV cutoff ϵϵϵ, the boundary impurity correction ($\ensuremath{\delta}{S}_{\mathrm{i}\mathrm{m}\mathrm{p}}$) to the logarithmic entanglement entropy (${S}_{\mathrm{e}\mathrm{n}\mathrm{t}}\ensuremath{\propto}\mathrm{ln}L/ϵ$) scales as $\ensuremath{\delta}{S}_{\mathrm{i}\mathrm{m}\mathrm{p}}\ensuremath{\sim}{y}_{r}\mathrm{ln}L/ϵ$, where yr{y}_{r}yr​ is the renormalized backscattering coupling constant. In this way, the entanglement entropy within a region is related to scattering through the region's boundary. In the repulsive case (g<1g<1g<1), $\ensuremath{\delta}{S}_{\mathrm{i}\mathrm{m}\mathrm{p}}$ diverges (negatively) suggesting that the entropy vanishes. Our results are consistent with the recent conjecture that entanglement entropy decreases irreversibly along renormalization group flow.
We carry out a numerical study of the bipartite entanglement entropy in the gapped regime of two paradigmatic quantum spin chain models: the Ising chain in an external magnetic field and the antiferromagnetic XXZ model. The universal scaling limit of these models is described by the massive Ising field theory and the SU(2)SU(2)SU(2)-Thirring (sine-Gordon) model, respectively. We may therefore exploit quantum field theoretical results to predict the behavior of the entropy. We numerically confirm that in the scaling limit, corrections to the saturation of the entropy at large region size are proportional to a modified Bessel function of the first kind, K0(2mr){K}_{0}(2mr)K0​(2mr), where mmm is a mass scale (the inverse correlation length) and rrr the length of the region under consideration. The proportionality constant is simply related to the number of particle types in the universal spectrum. This was originally predicted by J. L. Cardy, O. A. Castro-Alvaredo, and B. Doyon [J. Stat. Phys. 130, 129 (2008)] and B. Doyon [Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 031602 (2009)] for two-dimensional quantum field theories. Away from the universal region our numerics suggest an entropic behavior following quite closely the quantum field theory prediction, except for extra dependencies on the correlation length.
We review research on a number of situations where a quantum impurity or a physical boundary has an interesting effect on entanglement entropy. Our focus is mainly on impurity entanglement as it occurs in one dimensional systems with a single impurity or a boundary, in particular quantum spin models, but generalizations to higher dimensions are also reviewed. Recent advances in the understanding of impurity entanglement as it occurs in the spin-boson and Kondo impurity models are discussed along with the influence of boundaries. Particular attention is paid to 1+1 dimensional models where analytical results can be obtained for the case of conformally invariant boundary conditions and a connection to topological entanglement entropy is made. New results for the entanglement in systems with mixed boundary conditions are presented. Analytical results for the entanglement entropy obtained from Fermi liquid theory are also discussed as well as several different recent definitions of the impurity contribution to the entanglement entropy.