We calculate the entanglement and the universal boundary entropy (BE) in critical quantum spin chains, such as the transverse field Ising chain and the XXZ chain, with arbitrary direction of the boundary magnetic field (ADBMF). We determine the boundary universality class that an ADBMF induces. In particular, we show that the induced boundary conformal field theory depends on the point on the Bloch sphere where the boundary magnetic field directs. We show that the classification of the directions boils down to the simple fact that the boundary field breaks the bulk symmetry or does not. We present a procedure to estimate the universal BE, based on the finite-size corrections of the entanglement entropy, which apply to ADBMF. To calculate the universal BE in the XXZ chain, we use the density matrix renormalization group. The transverse field XY chain with ADBMF after Jordan-Wigner transformation is not a quadratic free fermion Hamiltonian. We map this model to a quadratic free fermion chain by introducing two extra ancillary spins coupled to the main chain at the boundaries, which makes the problem integrable. The eigenstates of the transverse field XY chain can be obtained by proper projection in the enlarged chain. Using this mapping, we are able to calculate the entanglement entropy of the transverse field XY chain using the usual correlation matrix technique up to relatively large sizes.
Consider a generic quantum spin chain that can be mapped to free quadratic fermions via Jordan-Wigner (JW) transformation. In the presence of arbitrary boundary magnetic fields, this Hamiltonian is no longer a quadratic Hamiltonian after JW transformation. Using ancillary sites and enlarging the Hamiltonian we first introduce a bigger quadratic Hamiltonian. Then we diagonalize this enlarged Hamiltonian in its most generic form and show that all the states are degenerate because of the presence of a zero mode. The eigenstates of the original spin chain with boundary magnetic fields can be derived after appropriate projection. We study in depth the properties of the eigenstates of the enlarged Hamiltonian. In particular we find: 1) the eigenstates in configuration bases, 2) calculate all the correlation functions, 3) find the reduced density matrices, 4) calculate the entanglement entropy. We show that the generic eigenstate of the enlarged Hamiltonian (including the eigenstates of the original spin chain) breaks the parity number symmetry and consequently one needs to take care of some technicalities regarding the calculation of the reduced density matrix and entanglement entropy. Interestingly we show that the entanglement structure of these eigenstates is quite universal and independent of the Hamiltonian. We support our results by applying them to a couple of examples.
Abstract We calculate exactly the probability to find the ground state of the XY chain in a given spin configuration in the transverse σ z -basis. By determining finite-volume corrections to the probabilities for a wide variety of configurations, we obtain the universal boundary entropy at the critical point. The latter is a benchmark of the underlying boundary conformal field theory characterizing each quantum state. To determine the scaling of the probabilities, we prove a theorem that expresses, in a factorized form, the eigenvalues of a sub-matrix of a circulant matrix as functions of the eigenvalues of the original matrix. Finally, the boundary entropies are computed by exploiting a generalization of the Euler–MacLaurin formula to non-differentiable functions. It is shown that, in some cases, the spin configuration can flow to a linear superposition of Cardy states. Our methods and tools are rather generic and can be applied to all the periodic quantum chains which map to free-fermionic Hamiltonians.
We recently showed [Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 220602 (2018)] that the average bipartite entanglement entropy of all energy eigenstates of the quantum Ising chain exhibits a universal (for translationally invariant quadratic fermionic models) leading term that scales linearly with the subsystem's volume, while in the thermodynamic limit the first subleading correction does not vanish at the critical field (it only depends on the ratio
f between the volume of the subsystem and volume of the system) and vanishes otherwise. Here we show, analytically for bounds and numerically for averages, that the same remains true for the spin-1/2 XY chain in a transverse magnetic field. We then tighten the bounds for the coefficient of the universal volume-law term, which is a concave function of
f. We develop a systematic approach to compute upper and lower bounds, and we provide explicit analytic expressions for up to the fourth-order bounds.
The half-chain entanglement entropy (EE) of the one-dimensional
XX (isotropic
XY) chain and quantum Ising chain (QIC) at the critical point are calculated numerically for large lattices. The periodic, free-free, fixed-fixed (
++) and ($+\ensuremath{-}$), and fixed-free boundary conditions (BCs) are studied. The models are transformed into a fermion system with a Jordan-Wigner transformation. The correlation functions of these fermions are obtained numerically. With the correlation functions, the entanglement entropy is obtained. The numerical calculation is performed with quadruple precision. The numerical results agree with the exact relationship with an accuracy of ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}28}$ between the EEs of the
XX chain and QICs: (1) the EE of the
XX chain with periodic BCs is the sum of two QICs with periodic BCs; (2) the EE of the
XX chain with free-free BCs is the sum of two QICs with free-free BCs; (3) the EE of the
XX chain with fixed-free BCs is the sum of the EE of a QIC with fixed-free BCs and that with free-free BCs; (4) the EE of the
XX chain with fixed-fixed (
++) BCs is the sum of the EE of a QIC with fixed-fixed (
++) BCs and that with free-free BCs; and (5) the EE of the
XX chain with fixed-fixed ($+\ensuremath{-}$) BCs is the sum of the EE of a QIC with fixed-fixed (
++) BCs and that of the first excited state of a QIC with free-free BCs. We fit the half-chain EE with finite-size scaling expansion of terms ${L}^{\ensuremath{-}n}$ and ${L}^{\ensuremath{-}n}lnL$, where
L is the length of the spin chain. We find that the fitted parameters for the leading term
lnL and the constant term are consistent with conformal field theory and that the exact solutions are highly accurate. The fitting accuracy is so high that the fitted central charge of the Ising model is $0.5\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}1\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}26}$ for the periodic boundary condition. From the higher-order corrections in the fitted expansion, we find that there exist ${L}^{\ensuremath{-}4}lnL$ and higher-order corrections for the fixed-fixed ($+\ensuremath{-}$) boundary conditions, whereas there exist ${L}^{\ensuremath{-}3}lnL$ and higher-order corrections for the fixed-free boundary conditions. These types of corrections mean corrections of the central charge.
Abstract We study the relative entanglement entropy (EE) among various primary excited states in two critical spin chains: the S = 1 / 2 XXZ chain and the transverse field Ising chain at criticality. For the S = 1 / 2 XXZ chain, which corresponds to c = 1 free boson conformal field theory (CFT), we numerically calculate the relative EE by exact diagonalization and find a perfect agreement with the predictions by the CFT. For the transverse field Ising chain at criticality, which corresponds to the c = 1 / 2 Ising CFT, we analytically relate its relative EE to that of the S = 1 / 2 XXZ chain and confirm the relation numerically. We also calculate the ‘sandwiched’ Rényi relative EE and again the numerical results agree well with the analytical predictions. Our results are the first direct confirmation of the CFT predictions on the relative EE of the primary excited states in critical spin chains.
The entanglement in quantum XY spin chains of arbitrary length is investigated via the geometric measure of entanglement. The emergence of entanglement is explained intuitively from the perspective of perturbations. The model is solved exactly and the energy spectrum is determined and analyzed in particular for the lowest two levels for both finite and infinite systems. The overlaps for these two levels are calculated analytically for arbitrary number of spins. The entanglement is hence obtained by maximizing over a single parameter. The corresponding ground-state entanglement surface is then determined over the entire phase diagram, and its behavior can be used to delineate the boundaries in the phase diagram. For example, the field-derivative of the entanglement becomes singular along the critical line. The form of the divergence is derived analytically and it turns out to be dictated by the universality class controlling the quantum phase transition. The behavior of the entanglement near criticality can be understood via a scaling hypothesis, analogous to that for free energies. The entanglement density vanishes along the so-called disorder line in the phase diagram, the ground space is doubly degenerate and spanned by two product states. The entanglement for the superposition of the lowest two states is also calculated. The exact value of the entanglement depends on the specific form of superposition. However, in the thermodynamic limit the entanglement density turns out to be independent of the superposition. This proves that the entanglement density is insensitive to whether the ground state is chosen to be the spontaneously
Z2 symmetry broken one or not. The finite-size scaling of entanglement at critical points is also investigated from two different view points. First, the maximum in the field-derivative of the entanglement density is computed and fitted to a logarithmic dependence of the system size, thereby deducing the correlation length exponent for the Ising class using only the behavior of entanglement. Second, the entanglement density itself is shown to possess a correction term inversely proportional to the system size, with the coefficient being universal (but with different values for the ground state and the first excited state, respectively).