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arXiv:2108.07280 · Journal of High Energy Physics

Quantum Extremal Surfaces and the Holographic Entropy Cone

Chris Akers, Sergio Hernández-Cuenca, Pratik Rath

Published Nov 1, 2021• 31 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Abstract Quantum states with geometric duals are known to satisfy a stricter set of entropy inequalities than those obeyed by general quantum systems. The set of allowed entropies derived using the Ryu-Takayanagi (RT) formula defines the Holographic Entropy Cone (HEC). These inequalities are no longer satisfied once general quantum corrections are included by employing the Quantum Extremal Surface (QES) prescription. Nevertheless, the structure of the QES formula allows for a controlled study of how quantum contributions from bulk entropies interplay with HEC inequalities. In this paper, we initiate an exploration of this problem by relating bulk entropy constraints to boundary entropy inequalities. In particular, we show that requiring the bulk entropies to satisfy the HEC implies that the boundary entropies also satisfy the HEC. Further, we also show that requiring the bulk entropies to obey monogamy of mutual information (MMI) implies the boundary entropies also obey MMI.

DOI
10.1007/jhep11(2021)177

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Abstract Quantum states with geometric duals are known to satisfy a stricter set of entropy inequalities than those obeyed by general quantum systems. The set of allowed entropies derived using the Ryu-Takayanagi (RT) formula defines the Holographic Entropy Cone (HEC). These inequalities are no longer satisfied once general quantum corrections are included by employing the Quantum Extremal Surface (QES) prescription. Nevertheless, the structure of the QES formula allows for a controlled study of how quantum contributions from bulk entropies interplay with HEC inequalities. In this paper, we initiate an exploration of this problem by relating bulk entropy constraints to boundary entropy inequalities. In particular, we show that requiring the bulk entropies to satisfy the HEC implies that the boundary entropies also satisfy the HEC. Further, we also show that requiring the bulk entropies to obey monogamy of mutual information (MMI) implies the boundary entropies also obey MMI.
Entanglement entropies computed using the holographic Ryu-Takayanagi formula are known to obey an infinite set of linear inequalities, which define the so-called RT entropy cone. The general structure of this cone, or equivalently the set of all valid inequalities, is unknown. It is also unknown whether those same inequalities are also obeyed by entropies computed using the covariant Hubeny-Rangamani-Takayanagi formula, although significant evidence has accumulated that they are. Using Markov states, we develop a test of this conjecture in a heretofore unexplored regime. The test reduces to checking that a given inequality obeys a certain majorization property, which is easy to evaluate. We find that the RT inequalities pass this test and, surprisingly, only such inequalities do so. Our results not only provide strong new evidence that the HRT and RT cones coincide, but also offer a completely new characterization of that cone.
The holographic entropy cone (HEC) characterizes the entanglement structure of quantum states which admit geometric bulk duals in holography. Due to its intrinsic complexity, to date it has only been possible to completely characterize the HEC for at most n=5n=5n=5 parties. For larger nnn, our knowledge of the HEC falls short of incomplete: almost nothing is known about its extremal elements. Here, we introduce a symmetrization procedure that projects the HEC onto a natural lower dimensional subspace. Upon symmetrization, we are able to conjecture precise properties that its extremal structure exhibits for general nnn. Further, by applying this symmetrization to the quantum entropy cone, we are able to quantify the typicality of symmetrized holographic entropies, which we find to be exponentially rare quantum entropies in the number of parties.
Abstract In holographic duality, if a boundary state has a geometric description that realizes the Ryu-Takayanagi proposal then its entanglement entropies must obey certain inequalities that together define the so-called holographic entropy cone. A large family of such inequalities have been proven under the assumption that the bulk geometry is static, using a method involving contraction maps. By using kinematic space techniques, we show that in two boundary (three bulk) dimensions, all entropy inequalities that can be proven in the static case by contraction maps must also hold in holographic states with time dependence.
In this Dissertation, different aspects of holographic entanglement entropy are explored. In quantum information theory, entanglement is a useful resource needed to perform quantum operations. Entanglement entropy quantifies this resource and even if computable in quantum field theories, it is quite hard to calculate explicitly. However, in the context of gauge/gravity duality, (holographic) entanglement entropy was proposed by Ryu and Takayanagi (RT) to be captured by the area of a minimal surface in Anti DeSitter (AdS) space, which is extremely simple to compute. We begin by using the holographic dictionary to derive the RT formula. This is done by first considering smooth bulk geometries which are dual to n copies of the boundary geometry glued in a particular way. The action of these geometries computes the Renyi entropies S_n for any integer n. We give a prescription to analytically continue the action to non-integer n and argue that, as n goes to 1,S_1, the entanglement entropy, is given by the area of a minimal surface, reproducing the RT conjecture. That is, we reduced the RT proposal to the equality between bulk and boundary partition functions, a standard entry in the dictionary. We then generalize the previous formalism to account for corrections due to bulk quantum fields (1/N corrections in the boundary). This allows us to derive a new formula: boundary entanglement entropy is given by the area of the minimal surface plus bulk entanglement entropy. This extends RT beyond the planar limit and we present several predictions of the proposal. Our exploration of holographic entanglement entropy continues by considering different states: by comparing the quantum corrected entropy for nearby states we obtain the modular hamiltonian operator in bulk perturbation theory. From this expression of the modular hamiltonian, we derive that relative entropy is bulk relative entropy and that the modular flow is the bulk modular flow.
In holographic duality, if a boundary state has a geometric description that realizes the Ryu-Takayanagi proposal then its entanglement entropies must obey certain inequalities that together define the so-called holographic entropy cone. A large family of such inequalities have been proven under the assumption that the bulk geometry is static, using a method involving contraction maps. By using kinematic space techniques, we show that in two boundary (three bulk) dimensions, all entropy inequalities that can be proven in the static case by contraction maps must also hold in holographic states with time dependence.
The Ryu-Takayanagi formula implies many general properties of entanglement entropies in holographic theories. We review the known properties, such as continuity, strong subadditivity, and monogamy of mutual information, and fill in gaps in some of the previously-published proofs. We also add a few new properties, including: properties of the map from boundary regions to bulk regions implied by the RT formula, such as monotonicity; conditions under which subadditivity-type inequalities are saturated; and an inequality concerning reflection-symmetric states. We attempt to draw lessons from these properties about the structure of the reduced density matrix in holographic theories.