Abstract We report on a systematic replica approach to calculate the subsystem trace distance for a quantum field theory. This method has been recently introduced in [J. Zhang, P. Ruggiero and P. Calabrese, Phys. Rev. Lett.122(2019) 141602 ], of which this work is a completion. The trace distance between two reduced density matricesρAandσAis obtained from the moments tr(ρA− σA)nand taking the limitn →1 of the traces of the even powers. We focus here on the case of a subsystem consisting of a single interval of lengthℓembedded in the low lying eigenstates of a one-dimensional critical system of lengthL, a situation that can be studied exploiting the path integral form of the reduced density matrices of two-dimensional conformal field theories. The trace distance turns out to be ascale invariant universal functionofℓ/L. Here we complete our previous work by providing detailed derivations of all results and further new formulas for the distances between several low-lying states in two-dimensional free massless compact boson and fermion theories. Remarkably, for one special case in the bosonic theory and for another in the fermionic one, we obtain the exact trace distance, as well as the Schattenn-distance, for an interval of arbitrary length, while in generic case we have a general form for the first term in the expansion in powers ofℓ/L. The analytical predictions in conformal field theories are tested against exact numerical calculations in XX and Ising spin chains, finding perfect agreement. As a byproduct, new results in two-dimensional CFT are also obtained for other entanglement-related quantities, such as the relative entropy and the fidelity.
We report on a systematic replica approach to calculate the subsystem trace distance for a generic quantum field theory. This method has been recently introduced in [J. Zhang, P. Ruggiero, P. Calabrese, Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 141602 (2019)], of which this work is a completion. The trace distance between two reduced density matrices
ρA and
σA is obtained from the moments
tr(ρA−σA)n and taking the limit
n→1 of the traces of the even powers. We focus here on the case of a subsystem consisting of a single interval of length
ℓ embedded in the low lying eigenstates of a one-dimensional critical system of length
L, a situation that can be studied exploiting the path integral form of the reduced density matrices of two-dimensional conformal field theories. The trace distance turns out to be a {\it scale invariant universal function} of
ℓ/L. Here we complete our previous work by providing detailed derivations of all results and further new formulas for the distances between several low-lying states in two-dimensional free massless compact boson and fermion theories. Remarkably, for one special case in the bosonic theory and for another in the fermionic one, we obtain the exact trace distance, as well as the Schatten
n-distance, for an interval of arbitrary length, while in generic case we have a general form for the first term in the expansion in powers of
ℓ/L. The analytical predictions in conformal field theories are tested against exact numerical calculations in XX and Ising spin chains, finding perfect agreement. As a byproduct, new results are also obtained for other entanglement-related quantities, such as the relative entropy and the fidelity.
We develop a systematic method to calculate the trace distance between two reduced density matrices in 1+1 dimensional quantum field theories. The approach exploits the path integral representation of the reduced density matrices and an ad hoc replica trick. We then extensively apply this method to the calculation of the distance between reduced density matrices of one interval of length ℓ in eigenstates of conformal field theories. When the interval is short, using the operator product expansion of twist operators, we obtain a universal form for the leading order in ℓ of the trace distance. We compute the trace distances among the reduced density matrices of several low lying states in two-dimensional free massless boson and fermion theories. We compare our analytic conformal results with numerical calculations in XX and Ising spin chains finding perfect agreement.
Abstract We develop a systematic approach to compute the subsystem trace distances and relative entropies for subsystem reduced density matrices associated to excited states in different symmetry sectors of a 1+1 dimensional conformal field theory having an internal U(1) symmetry. We provide analytic expressions for the charged moments corresponding to the resolution of both relative entropies and distances for general integer n. For the relative entropies, these formulas are manageable and the analytic continuation to n = 1 can be worked out in most of the cases. Conversely, for the distances the corresponding charged moments become soon untreatable as n increases. A remarkable result is that relative entropies and distances are the same for all symmetry sectors, i.e. they satisfy entanglement equipartition, like the entropies. Moreover, we exploit the OPE expansion of composite twist fields, to provide very general results when the subsystem is a single interval much smaller than the total system. We focus on the massless compact boson and our results are tested against exact numerical calculations in the XX spin chain.
We study the relative entanglement entropies of one interval between excited states of a 1+1 dimensional conformal field theory (CFT). To compute the relative entropy S(ρ 1∥ρ 0) between two given reduced density matrices ρ 1 and ρ 0 of a quantum field theory, we employ the replica trick which relies on the path integral representation of Tr(ρ 1 ρ 0 − 1 ) and define a set of Rényi relative entropies S n (ρ 1∥ρ 0). We compute these quantities for integer values of the parameter n and derive via the replica limit the relative entropy between excited states generated by primary fields of a free massless bosonic field. In particular, we provide the relative entanglement entropy of the state described by the primary operator i∂ϕ, both with respect to the ground state and to the state generated by chiral vertex operators. These predictions are tested against exact numerical calculations in the XX spin-chain finding perfect agreement.
Abstract We investigate the time evolution of the subsystem trace distance and Schatten distances after local operator quenches in two-dimensional conformal field theory (CFT) and in one-dimensional quantum spin chains. We focus on the case of a subsystem being an interval embedded in the infinite line. The initial state is prepared by inserting a local operator in the ground state of the theory. We only consider the cases in which the inserted local operator is a primary field or a sum of several primaries. While a nonchiral primary operator can excite both left-moving and right-moving quasiparticles, a holomorphic primary operator only excites a right-moving quasiparticle and an anti-holomorphic primary operator only excites a left-moving one. The reduced density matrix (RDM) of an interval hosting a quasiparticle is orthogonal to the RDM of the interval without any quasiparticles. Moreover, the RDMs of two intervals hosting quasiparticles at different positions are also orthogonal to each other. We calculate numerically the entanglement entropy, Rényi entropy, trace distance, and Schatten distances in time-dependent states excited by different local operators in the critical Ising and XX spin chains. These results match the CFT predictions in the proper limit.
We study the R´enyi entropy and subsystem distances on one interval for the finite size and thermal states in the critical XY chains, focusing on the critical Ising chain and XX chain with zero transverse field. We construct numerically the reduced density matrices and calculate the von Neumann entropy, R´enyi entropy, subsystem trace distance, Schatten two-distance, and relative entropy. As the continuum limit of the critical Ising chain and XX chain with zero field are, respectively, the two-dimensional free massless Majorana and Dirac fermion theories, which are conformal field theories, we compare the spin chain numerical results with the analytical results in conformal field theories and find perfect matches in the continuum limit.