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arXiv:1407.7249 · Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D. Particles and fields

Some results on the shape dependence of entanglement and Rényi entropies

Andrea Allais, Márk Mezei

Published Feb 2, 2015• 69 citations
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Abstract

We study how the universal contribution to entanglement entropy in a conformal field theory depends on the entangling region. We show that for a deformed sphere the variation of the universal contribution is quadratic in the deformation amplitude. We generalize these results for R\'enyi entropies. We obtain an explicit expression for the second order variation of entanglement entropy in the case of a deformed circle in a three-dimensional conformal field theory with a gravity dual. For the same system, we also consider an elliptic entangling region and determine numerically the entanglement entropy as a function of the aspect ratio of the ellipse. Based on these three-dimensional results and Solodukhin's formula in four dimensions, we conjecture that the sphere minimizes the universal contribution to entanglement entropy in all dimensions.

DOI
10.1103/physrevd.91.046002

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We study how the universal contribution to entanglement entropy in a conformal field theory depends on the entangling region. We show that for a deformed sphere the variation of the universal contribution is quadratic in the deformation amplitude. We generalize these results for R'enyi entropies. We obtain an explicit expression for the second order variation of entanglement entropy in the case of a deformed circle in a three-dimensional conformal field theory with a gravity dual. For the same system, we also consider an elliptic entangling region and determine numerically the entanglement entropy as a function of the aspect ratio of the ellipse. Based on these three-dimensional results and Solodukhin's formula in four dimensions, we conjecture that the sphere minimizes the universal contribution to entanglement entropy in all dimensions.
We propose a field theoretic framework for calculating the dependence of Rényi entropies on the shape of the entangling surface in a conformal field theory. Our approach rests on regarding the corresponding twist operator as a conformal defect and in particular, we define the displacement operator which implements small local deformations of the entangling surface. We identify a simple constraint between the coefficient defining the two-point function of the displacement operator and the conformal weight of the twist operator, which consolidates a number of distinct conjectures on the shape dependence of the Rényi entropy. As an example, using this approach, we examine a conjecture regarding the universal coefficient associated with a conical singularity in the entangling surface for CFTs in any number of spacetime dimensions. We also provide a general formula for the second order variation of the Rényi entropy arising from small deformations of a spherical entangling surface, extending Mezei’s results for the entanglement entropy.
We study universal features in the shape dependence of entanglement entropy in the vacuum state of a conformal field theory (CFT) on R1,d−1 {\mathrm{\mathbb{R}}}^{1,d-1} R1,d−1 . We consider the entanglement entropy across a deformed planar or spherical entangling surface in terms of a perturbative expansion in the infinitesimal shape deformation. In particular, we focus on the second order term in this expansion, known as the entanglement density. This quantity is known to be non-positive by the strong-subadditivity property. We show from a purely field theory calculation that the non-local part of the entanglement density in any CFT is universal, and proportional to the coefficient C T appearing in the two-point function of stress tensors in that CFT. As applications of our result, we prove the conjectured universality of the corner term coefficient σCT=π224 \frac{\sigma }{C_T}=\frac{\pi^2}{24} CT​σ​=24π2​ in d = 3 CFTs, and the holographic Mezei formula for entanglement entropy across deformed spheres.
I study the entanglement entropy (EE) across a deformed sphere in conformal field theories (CFTs). I show that the sphere (locally) minimizes the universal term in EE among all shapes. In the work of Allais and Mezei [Phys. Rev. D 91, 046002 (2015)] it was derived that the sphere is a local extremum, by showing that the contribution linear in the deformation parameter is absent. In this paper I demonstrate that the quadratic contribution is positive and is controlled by the coefficient of the stress tensor two-point function, CT{C}_{T}CT​. Such a minimization result contextualizes the fruitful relation between the EE of a sphere and the number of degrees of freedom in field theory. I work with CFTs with gravitational duals, where all higher curvature couplings are turned on. These couplings parametrize conformal structures in stress tensor nnn-point functions; hence I show the result for infinitely many CFT examples.
We develop a framework for studying the well-known universal term in the Rényi entropy for an arbitrary entangling region in four-dimensional conformal field theories that are holographically dual to gravitational theories. The shape dependence of the Rényi entropy S_{n} is described by two coefficients: f_{b}(n) for traceless extrinsic curvature deformations and f_{c}(n) for Weyl tensor deformations. We provide the first calculation of the coefficient f_{b}(n) in interacting theories by relating it to the stress tensor one-point function in a deformed hyperboloid background. The latter is then determined by a straightforward holographic calculation. Our results show that a previous conjecture f_{b}(n)=f_{c}(n), motivated by surprising evidence from a variety of free field theories and studies of conical defects, fails holographically.
Entanglement entropy in even-dimensional conformal field theories (CFTs) contains well-known universal terms arising from the conformal anomaly. R\'enyi entropies are natural generalizations of the entanglement entropy that are much less understood. Above two spacetime dimensions, the universal terms in the R\'enyi entropies are unknown for general entangling geometries. We conjecture a new structure in the dependence of the four-dimensional R\'enyi entropies on the intrinsic and extrinsic geometry of the entangling surface. We provide evidence for this conjecture by direct numerical computations in the free scalar and fermion field theories. The computation involves relating the four-dimensional free massless R\'enyi entropies across cylindrical entangling surfaces to corresponding three-dimensional massive R\'enyi entropies across circular entangling surfaces. Our numerical technique also allows us to directly probe other interesting aspects of three-dimensional R\'enyi entropy, including the massless renormalized R\'enyi entropy and calculable contributions to the perimeter law.
Here, we study universal features in the shape dependence of entanglement entropy in the vacuum state of a conformal field theory (CFT) on R1,d--1. We consider the entanglement entropy across a deformed planar or spherical entangling surface in terms of a perturbative expansion in the infinitesimal shape deformation. In particular, we focus on the second order term in this expansion, known as the entanglement density. This quantity is known to be non-positive by the strong-subadditivity property. We also show from a purely field theory calculation that the non-local part of the entanglement density in any CFT is universal, and proportional to the coefficient CT appearing in the two-point function of stress tensors in that CFT. As applications of our result, we prove the conjectured universality of the corner term coefficient σ/CT=π2/24 in d = 3 CFTs, and the holographic Mezei formula for entanglement entropy across deformed spheres.