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arXiv:1608.00305 · Journal of High Energy Physics

Entanglement entropy for free scalar fields in AdS

Sotaro Sugishita

Published Sep 1, 2016• 13 citations
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Abstract

We compute entanglement entropy for free massive scalar fields in anti-de Sitter (AdS) space. The entangling surface is a minimal surface whose boundary is a sphere at the boundary of AdS. The entropy can be evaluated from the thermal free energy of the fields on a topological black hole by using the replica method. In odd-dimensional AdS, exact expressions of the Rényi entropy S n are obtained for arbitrary n. We also evaluate 1-loop corrections coming from the scalar fields to holographic entanglement entropy. Applying the results, we compute the leading difference of entanglement entropy between two holographic CFTs related by a renormalization group flow triggered by a double trace deformation. The difference is proportional to the shift of a central charge under the flow.

DOI
10.1007/jhep09(2016)128

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We compute entanglement entropy for free massive scalar fields in anti-de Sitter (AdS) space. The entangling surface is a minimal surface whose boundary is a sphere at the boundary of AdS. The entropy can be evaluated from the thermal free energy of the fields on a topological black hole by using the replica method. In odd-dimensional AdS, exact expressions of the Rényi entropy S n are obtained for arbitrary n. We also evaluate 1-loop corrections coming from the scalar fields to holographic entanglement entropy. Applying the results, we compute the leading difference of entanglement entropy between two holographic CFTs related by a renormalization group flow triggered by a double trace deformation. The difference is proportional to the shift of a central charge under the flow.
It was proposed by Ryu and Takayanagi that the entanglement entropy in conformal field theory (CFT) is related through the AdS/CFT correspondence to the area of a minimal surface in the bulk. We apply this holographic geometrical method of calculating the entanglement entropy to study the vacuum case of a CFT which is holographically dual to empty anti-de Sitter (AdS) spacetime. We present all possible minimal surfaces spanned on one or two spherical boundaries at AdS infinity. We give exact analytical expressions for the regularized areas of these surfaces and identify finite renormalized quantities. In the case of two disjoint boundaries the existence of two different phases of the entanglement entropy is confirmed. A trivial phase corresponds to two disconnected minimal surfaces, while the other one corresponds to a tube connecting the spherical boundaries. A transition between these phases is reminiscent of the finite temperature deconfinement transition in the CFT on the boundary. The exact analytical results are thus consistent with previous numerical and approximate computations. We also briefly discuss the character of a spacetime extension of the minimal surface spanned on two uniformly accelerated boundaries.
We develop a renormalization method for holographic entanglement entropy based on area renormalization of entangling surfaces. The renormalized entanglement en-tropy is derived for entangling surfaces in asymptotically locally anti-de Sitter spacetimes in general dimensions and for entangling surfaces in four dimensional holographic renor-malization group flows. The renormalized entanglement entropy for disk regions in AdS 4 spacetimes agrees precisely with the holographically renormalized action for AdS 4 with spherical slicing and hence with the F quantity, in accordance with the Casini-Huerta-Myers map. We present a generic class of holographic RG flows associated with deforma-tions by operators of dimension 3/2 < Δ < 5/2 for which the F quantity increases along the RG flow, hence violating the strong version of the F theorem. We conclude by explaining how the renormalized entanglement entropy can be derived directly from the renormalized partition function using the replica trick i.e. our renormalization method for the entangle-ment entropy is inherited directly from that of the partition function. We show explicitly how the entanglement entropy counterterms can be derived from the standard holographic renormalization counterterms for asymptotically locally anti-de Sitter spacetimes.
We study nonperturbative aspects of quantum field theory (QFT) in rigid anti de Sitter (AdS) spacetime using quantum information theoretic methods. While irreversibility of renormalization group (RG) flows is well established in flat space, it is not obvious whether it persists in AdS, where negative curvature and an asymptotic timelike boundary significantly modify infrared dynamics. Using strong subadditivity and AdS invariance, we derive an entropic second-order differential inequality for the difference between the vacuum entanglement entropy of a QFT and that of its ultraviolet fixed point, evaluated for spherical bulk regions. This inequality allows us to define RG charges that measure the relevant number of degrees of freedom, and we prove the irreversibility of the RG in 2, 3,2,\,3,2,3, and 444 spacetime dimensions. We further analyze free scalar and fermion theories in AdS, developing lattice formulations adapted to the geometry and computing entanglement entropies and RG charges. In AdS2_22​, we obtain analytic results for a massive Dirac fermion and compare them with numerical lattice calculations. These examples illustrate the general irreversibility theorem and clarify the distinction between conformal and massive theories in AdS.
In recent years, the holographic duality between T T ¯ -deformed conformal field theory (CFT) and Anti-de Sitter (AdS) spacetime with finite radial cutoff has received significant attention. The study of T T ¯ deformation within the framework of de Sitter (dS)/CFT duality has also progressed. This paper shows that the trace flow equation in dS spacetime can be analytically extended from its AdS counterpart through double Wick rotations. Meanwhile, we generalize the replica method in both AdS and dS holography to derive a general expression for the entanglement entropy of arbitrary single spatial intervals within the T T ¯ -deformed framework. For both finite size and finite temperature systems, we obtain the analytical expression for the entanglement entropy after T T ¯ deformation. Finally, in dS/dS holography and half-dS holography, we find that the dual field theory exhibits nonlocality by analyzing the strong subadditivity and boosted strong subadditivity of entanglement entropy.
We describe a holographic approach to explicitly computing the universal logarithmic contributions to entanglement and Rényi entropies for free conformal scalar and spinor fields on even-dimensional spheres. This holographic derivation proceeds in two steps: first, following Casini and Huerta, a conformal mapping to thermal entropy in a hyperbolic geometry; then identification of the hyperbolic geometry with the conformal boundary of a bulk hyperbolic space and use of an AdS/CFT holographic formula to compute the resultant functional determinant. We explicitly verify the connection with the type-A trace anomaly for the entanglement entropy, whereas the Rényi entropy is computed with the aid of the Sommerfeld formula in order to deal with a conical defect. We show that as a by-product, the log coefficient of the Rényi entropy for round spheres can be efficiently obtained as the q-analog of a procedure similar to the one found by Cappelli and D’Appollonio that rendered the type-A trace anomaly.