Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:1911.11145 · SciPost Physics

Areas and entropies in BFSS/gravity duality

Tarek Anous, Joanna Karczmarek, Eric Mintun, Mark Van Raamsdonk B, Benson Way

Published Apr 15, 2020• 23 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The BFSS matrix model provides an example of gauge-theory / gravity duality where the gauge theory is a model of ordinary quantum mechanics with no spatial subsystems. If there exists a general connection between areas and entropies in this model similar to the Ryu-Takayanagi formula, the entropies must be more general than the usual subsystem entanglement entropies. In this note, we first investigate the extremal surfaces in the geometries dual to the BFSS model at zero and finite temperature. We describe a method to associate regulated areas to these surfaces and calculate the areas explicitly for a family of surfaces preserving SO(8) symmetry, both at zero and finite temperature. We then discuss possible entropic quantities in the matrix model that could be dual to these regulated areas.

DOI
10.21468/scipostphys.8.4.057

Related papers

The dual of non-extremal area

Vijay Balasubramanian

A bstract The Ryu-Takayanagi formula relates entanglement entropy in a field theory to the area of extremal surfaces anchored to the boundary of a dual AdS space. It is interesting to ask if there is also an information theoretic interpretation of the areas of non-extremal surfaces that are not necessarily boundary-anchored. In general, the physics outside such surfaces is associated to observers restricted to a time-strip in the dual boundary field theory. When the latter is two-dimensional, it is known that the differential entropy associated to the strip computes the length of the dual bulk curve, and has an interpretation in terms of the information cost in Bell pairs of restoring correlations inaccessible to observers in the strip. A general realization of this formalism in higher dimensions is unknown. We first prove a no-go theorem eliminating candidate expressions for higher dimensional differential entropy based on entropic c-theorems. Then we propose a new formula in terms of an integral of shape derivatives of the entanglement entropy of ball shaped regions. Our proposal stems from the physical requirement that differential entropy must be locally finite and conformally invariant. Demanding cancelation of the well-known UV divergences of entanglement entropy in field theory guides us to our conjecture, which we test for surfaces in AdS 4 . Our results suggest a candidate c-function for field theories in arbitrary dimensions.

•Jan 1, 2020•17 citations

The dual of non-extremal area: differential entropy in higher dimensions

Vijay Balasubramanian, Charles Rabideau

Abstract The Ryu-Takayanagi formula relates entanglement entropy in a field theory to the area of extremal surfaces anchored to the boundary of a dual AdS space. It is interesting to ask if there is also an information theoretic interpretation of the areas of non-extremal surfaces that are not necessarily boundary-anchored. In general, the physics outside such surfaces is associated to observers restricted to a time-strip in the dual boundary field theory. When the latter is two-dimensional, it is known that the differential entropy associated to the strip computes the length of the dual bulk curve, and has an interpretation in terms of the information cost in Bell pairs of restoring correlations inaccessible to observers in the strip. A general realization of this formalism in higher dimensions is unknown. We first prove a no-go theorem eliminating candidate expressions for higher dimensional differential entropy based on entropic c-theorems. Then we propose a new formula in terms of an integral of shape derivatives of the entanglement entropy of ball shaped regions. Our proposal stems from the physical requirement that differential entropy must be locally finite and conformally invariant. Demanding cancelation of the well-known UV divergences of entanglement entropy in field theory guides us to our conjecture, which we test for surfaces in AdS4. Our results suggest a candidate c-function for field theories in arbitrary dimensions.

arXiv:1812.06985•Journal of High Energy Physics•Sep 1, 2020•3 citations

The gravity dual of Rényi entropy

Xi Dong

A remarkable yet mysterious property of black holes is that their entropy is proportional to the horizon area. This area law inspired the holographic principle, which was later realized concretely in gauge-gravity duality. In this context, entanglement entropy is given by the area of a minimal surface in a dual spacetime. However, discussions of area laws have been constrained to entanglement entropy, whereas a full understanding of a quantum state requires Rényi entropies. Here we show that all Rényi entropies satisfy a similar area law in holographic theories and are given by the areas of dual cosmic branes. This geometric prescription is a one-parameter generalization of the minimal surface prescription for entanglement entropy. Applying this we provide the first holographic calculation of mutual Rényi information between two disks of arbitrary dimension. Our results provide a framework for efficiently studying Rényi entropies and understanding entanglement structures in strongly coupled systems and quantum gravity.

arXiv:1601.06788•Nature Communications•Aug 12, 2016•340 citations

Matrix Quantum Mechanics and Entanglement Entropy: A Review

Jackson R. Fliss, Frenkel Alexander

We review aspects of entanglement entropy in the quantum mechanics of N×N matrices, i.e., matrix quantum mechanics (MQM), at large N. In doing so, we review standard models of MQM and their relation to string theory, D-brane physics, and emergent non-commutative geometries. We overview, in generality, definitions of subsystems and entanglement entropies in theories with gauge redundancy and discuss the additional structure required for definining subsystems in MQMs possessing a U(N) gauge redundancy. In connecting these subsystems to non-commutative geometry, we review several works on ‘target space entanglement,’ and entanglement in non-commutative field theories, highlighting the conditions in which target space entanglement entropy displays an ‘area law’ at large N. We summarize several example calculations of entanglement entropy in non-commutative geometries and MQMs. We review recent work in connecting the area law entanglement of MQM to the Ryu–Takayanagi formula, highlighting the conditions in which U(N) invariance implies a minimal area formula for the entanglement entropy at large N. Finally, we make comments on open questions and research directions.

arXiv:2512.03163•Entropy•Dec 31, 2025•3 citations

Duality transformations and the entanglement entropy of gauge theories

Andrea Bulgarelli, Marco Panero C

A bstract The study of entanglement in gauge theories is expected to provide insights into many fundamental phenomena, including confinement. However, calculations of quantities related to entanglement in gauge theories are limited by ambiguities that stem from the non-factorizability of the Hilbert space. In this work we study lattice gauge theories that admit a dual description in terms of spin models, for which the replica trick and Rényi entropies are well defined. In the first part of this work, we explicitly perform the duality transformation in a replica geometry, deriving the structure of a replica space for a gauge theory. Then, in the second part, we calculate, by means of Monte Carlo simulations, the entropic c-function of the ℤ 2 gauge theory in three spacetime dimensions, exploiting its dual description in terms of the three-dimensional Ising model.

arXiv:2404.01987•Journal of High Energy Physics•Jun 7, 2024•12 citations

Illuminating entanglement shadows of BTZ black holes by a generalized entanglement measure

Marius Gerbershagen

Abstract We define a generalized entanglement measure in the context of the AdS/CFT correspondence. Compared to the ordinary entanglement entropy for a spatial subregion dual to the area of the Ryu-Takayanagi surface, we take into account both entanglement between spatial degrees of freedom as well as between different fields of the boundary theory. Moreover, we resolve the contribution to the entanglement entropy of strings with different winding numbers in the bulk geometry. We then calculate this generalized entanglement measure in a thermal state dual to the BTZ black hole in the setting of the D1/D5 system at and close to the orbifold point. We find that the entanglement entropy defined in this way is dual to the length of a geodesic with non-zero winding number. Such geodesics probe the entire bulk geometry, including the entanglement shadow up to the horizon in the one-sided black hole as well as the wormhole growth in the case of a two-sided black hole for an arbitrarily long time. Therefore, we propose that the entanglement structure of the boundary state is enough to reconstruct asymptotically AdS3 geometries up to extremal surface barriers.

arXiv:2105.01097•Journal of High Energy Physics•Oct 22, 2021•9 citations
The BFSS matrix model provides an example of gauge-theory / gravity duality where the gauge theory is a model of ordinary quantum mechanics with no spatial subsystems. If there exists a general connection between areas and entropies in this model similar to the Ryu-Takayanagi formula, the entropies must be more general than the usual subsystem entanglement entropies. In this note, we first investigate the extremal surfaces in the geometries dual to the BFSS model at zero and finite temperature. We describe a method to associate regulated areas to these surfaces and calculate the areas explicitly for a family of surfaces preserving SO(8) symmetry, both at zero and finite temperature. We then discuss possible entropic quantities in the matrix model that could be dual to these regulated areas.
A bstract The Ryu-Takayanagi formula relates entanglement entropy in a field theory to the area of extremal surfaces anchored to the boundary of a dual AdS space. It is interesting to ask if there is also an information theoretic interpretation of the areas of non-extremal surfaces that are not necessarily boundary-anchored. In general, the physics outside such surfaces is associated to observers restricted to a time-strip in the dual boundary field theory. When the latter is two-dimensional, it is known that the differential entropy associated to the strip computes the length of the dual bulk curve, and has an interpretation in terms of the information cost in Bell pairs of restoring correlations inaccessible to observers in the strip. A general realization of this formalism in higher dimensions is unknown. We first prove a no-go theorem eliminating candidate expressions for higher dimensional differential entropy based on entropic c-theorems. Then we propose a new formula in terms of an integral of shape derivatives of the entanglement entropy of ball shaped regions. Our proposal stems from the physical requirement that differential entropy must be locally finite and conformally invariant. Demanding cancelation of the well-known UV divergences of entanglement entropy in field theory guides us to our conjecture, which we test for surfaces in AdS 4 . Our results suggest a candidate c-function for field theories in arbitrary dimensions.
Abstract The Ryu-Takayanagi formula relates entanglement entropy in a field theory to the area of extremal surfaces anchored to the boundary of a dual AdS space. It is interesting to ask if there is also an information theoretic interpretation of the areas of non-extremal surfaces that are not necessarily boundary-anchored. In general, the physics outside such surfaces is associated to observers restricted to a time-strip in the dual boundary field theory. When the latter is two-dimensional, it is known that the differential entropy associated to the strip computes the length of the dual bulk curve, and has an interpretation in terms of the information cost in Bell pairs of restoring correlations inaccessible to observers in the strip. A general realization of this formalism in higher dimensions is unknown. We first prove a no-go theorem eliminating candidate expressions for higher dimensional differential entropy based on entropic c-theorems. Then we propose a new formula in terms of an integral of shape derivatives of the entanglement entropy of ball shaped regions. Our proposal stems from the physical requirement that differential entropy must be locally finite and conformally invariant. Demanding cancelation of the well-known UV divergences of entanglement entropy in field theory guides us to our conjecture, which we test for surfaces in AdS4. Our results suggest a candidate c-function for field theories in arbitrary dimensions.
A remarkable yet mysterious property of black holes is that their entropy is proportional to the horizon area. This area law inspired the holographic principle, which was later realized concretely in gauge-gravity duality. In this context, entanglement entropy is given by the area of a minimal surface in a dual spacetime. However, discussions of area laws have been constrained to entanglement entropy, whereas a full understanding of a quantum state requires Rényi entropies. Here we show that all Rényi entropies satisfy a similar area law in holographic theories and are given by the areas of dual cosmic branes. This geometric prescription is a one-parameter generalization of the minimal surface prescription for entanglement entropy. Applying this we provide the first holographic calculation of mutual Rényi information between two disks of arbitrary dimension. Our results provide a framework for efficiently studying Rényi entropies and understanding entanglement structures in strongly coupled systems and quantum gravity.
We review aspects of entanglement entropy in the quantum mechanics of N×N matrices, i.e., matrix quantum mechanics (MQM), at large N. In doing so, we review standard models of MQM and their relation to string theory, D-brane physics, and emergent non-commutative geometries. We overview, in generality, definitions of subsystems and entanglement entropies in theories with gauge redundancy and discuss the additional structure required for definining subsystems in MQMs possessing a U(N) gauge redundancy. In connecting these subsystems to non-commutative geometry, we review several works on ‘target space entanglement,’ and entanglement in non-commutative field theories, highlighting the conditions in which target space entanglement entropy displays an ‘area law’ at large N. We summarize several example calculations of entanglement entropy in non-commutative geometries and MQMs. We review recent work in connecting the area law entanglement of MQM to the Ryu–Takayanagi formula, highlighting the conditions in which U(N) invariance implies a minimal area formula for the entanglement entropy at large N. Finally, we make comments on open questions and research directions.
A bstract The study of entanglement in gauge theories is expected to provide insights into many fundamental phenomena, including confinement. However, calculations of quantities related to entanglement in gauge theories are limited by ambiguities that stem from the non-factorizability of the Hilbert space. In this work we study lattice gauge theories that admit a dual description in terms of spin models, for which the replica trick and Rényi entropies are well defined. In the first part of this work, we explicitly perform the duality transformation in a replica geometry, deriving the structure of a replica space for a gauge theory. Then, in the second part, we calculate, by means of Monte Carlo simulations, the entropic c-function of the ℤ 2 gauge theory in three spacetime dimensions, exploiting its dual description in terms of the three-dimensional Ising model.
Abstract We define a generalized entanglement measure in the context of the AdS/CFT correspondence. Compared to the ordinary entanglement entropy for a spatial subregion dual to the area of the Ryu-Takayanagi surface, we take into account both entanglement between spatial degrees of freedom as well as between different fields of the boundary theory. Moreover, we resolve the contribution to the entanglement entropy of strings with different winding numbers in the bulk geometry. We then calculate this generalized entanglement measure in a thermal state dual to the BTZ black hole in the setting of the D1/D5 system at and close to the orbifold point. We find that the entanglement entropy defined in this way is dual to the length of a geodesic with non-zero winding number. Such geodesics probe the entire bulk geometry, including the entanglement shadow up to the horizon in the one-sided black hole as well as the wormhole growth in the case of a two-sided black hole for an arbitrarily long time. Therefore, we propose that the entanglement structure of the boundary state is enough to reconstruct asymptotically AdS3 geometries up to extremal surface barriers.