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arXiv:1504.02475 · Physical Review Letters

Universal Features of Left-Right Entanglement Entropy

Diptarka Das, Shouvik Datta

Published Sep 22, 2015• 75 citations
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Abstract

We show the presence of universal features in the entanglement entropy of regularized boundary states for (1+1)D conformal field theories on a circle when the reduced density matrix is obtained by tracing over right- or left-moving modes. We derive a general formula for the left-right entanglement entropy in terms of the central charge and the modular S matrix of the theory. When the state is chosen to be an Ishibashi state, this measure of entanglement is shown to precisely reproduce the spatial entanglement entropy of a (2+1)D topological quantum field theory. We explicitly evaluate the left-right entanglement entropies for the Ising model, the tricritical Ising model and the su[over ^](2)_{k} Wess-Zumino-Witten model as examples.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.115.131602

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We study entanglement entropy of boundary states in a free bosonic conformal field theory. A boundary state can be thought of as composed of a particular combination of left and right-moving modes of the two-dimensional conformal field theory. We investigate the reduced density matrix obtained by tracing over the right-moving modes in various boundary states. We consider Dirichlet and Neumann boundary states of a free noncompact as well as a compact boson. The results for the entanglement entropy indicate that the reduced system can be viewed as a thermal CFT gas. Our findings are in agreement and generalize results in quantum mechanics and quantum field theory where coherent states can also be considered. In the compact case we verify that the entanglement entropy expressions are consistent with T-duality.
The concept of distinguishability lies at the heart of quantum information theory. We introduce \textit{left-right relative entropy} as a quantitative measure of distinguishability within the space of boundary states in two-dimensional conformal field theories (CFTs). By tracing over either the left- or right-moving modes, we derive a universal formula for arbitrary regularized boundary states defined on a circle. Remarkably, the resulting quantity reduces to a Kullback--Leibler divergence, where the associated probability distribution is determined entirely by the modular S\mathcal{S}S-matrix and the boundary data. For diagonal CFTs, we obtain exact expressions for the left-right relative entropy in terms of modular data, and extend the framework to define \textit{Sandwiched Left-Right Rényi relative entropies} and \textit{left-right fidelity}. Applying this formalism to the Ising model, tricritical Ising model, and su^(2)k\widehat{su}(2)_ksu(2)k​ WZW model, we uncover a striking phenomenon: the left-right relative entropy between certain reduced boundary states vanishes even though the corresponding global boundary states are orthogonal. This observation motivates the introduction of \textit{relative entanglement sectors}, defined as equivalence classes of boundary states that are indistinguishable with respect to left-right relative entropy. These sectors transform as NIM-representations of global symmetries and exhibit level-dependent structures that mirror Z2\mathbb{Z}_2Z2​ 't Hooft anomalies. Our findings establish an unexpected bridge between quantum information measures, boundary conformal symmetry, and quantum anomaly constraints.
We study entanglement entropy of boundary states in a free bosonic conformal field theory. A boundary state can be thought of as composed of a particular combination of left and right-moving modes of the two-dimensional conformal field theory. We investigate the reduced density matrix obtained by tracing over the right-moving modes in various boundary states. We consider Dirichlet and Neumann boundary states of a free noncompact as well as a compact boson. The results for the entanglement entropy indicate that the reduced system can be viewed as a thermal CFT gas. Our findings are in agreement and generalize results in quantum mechanics and quantum field theory where coherent states can also be considered. In the compact case we verify that the entanglement entropy expressions are consistent with T-duality.
Entanglement entropy (EE) contains signatures of many universal properties of conformal field theories (CFTs), especially in the presence of boundaries or defects. In particular, topological defects are interesting since they reflect internal symmetries of the CFT and have been extensively analyzed with field-theoretic techniques with striking predictions. So far, however, no lattice computation of EE has been available. Here, we present an ab initio analysis of EE for the Ising model in the presence of a topological defect. While the behavior of the EE depends, as expected, on the geometric arrangement of the subsystem with respect to the defect, we find that zero-energy modes give rise to crucial finite-size corrections. Importantly, contrary to the field-theory predictions, the universal subleading term in the EE when the defect lies at the edge of the subsystem arises entirely due to these zero-energy modes and is not directly related to the modular S matrix of the Ising CFT.
Employing a conformal map to hyperbolic space cross a circle, we compute the universal contribution to the vacuum entanglement entropy (EE) across a sphere in even-dimensional conformal field theory. Previous attempts to derive the EE in this way were hindered by a lack of knowledge of the appropriate boundary terms in the trace anomaly. In this paper we show that the universal part of the EE can be treated as a purely boundary effect. As a byproduct of our computation, we derive an explicit form for the A-type anomaly contribution to the Wess-Zumino term for the trace anomaly, now including boundary terms. In d = 4 and 6, these boundary terms generalize earlier bulk actions derived in the literature.
In this paper we consider entanglement entropies in two-dimensional conformal field theories in the presence of topological interfaces. Tracing over one side of the interface, the leading term of the entropy remains unchanged. The interface however adds a subleading contribution, which can be interpreted as a relative (Kullback-Leibler) entropy with respect to the situation with no defect inserted. Reinterpreting boundaries as topological interfaces of a chiral half of the full theory, we rederive the left/right entanglement entropy in analogy with the interface case. We discuss WZW models and toroidal bosonic theories as examples.