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arXiv:2305.16856 · Journal of Physics A Mathematical and Theoretical

Logarithmic negativity and spectrum in free fermionic systems for well-separated intervals

Eldad Bettelheim

Published Oct 3, 2023• 0 citations
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Abstract

Abstract We employ a mathematical framework based on the Riemann-Hilbert approach developed by Bettelheim et al (2022 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 55 135001) to study logarithmic negativity of two intervals of free fermions in the case where the size of the intervals as well as the distance between them is macroscopic. We find that none of the eigenvalues of the density matrix become negative, but rather they develop a small imaginary value, leading to non-zero logarithmic negativity. As an example, we compute negativity at half-filling and for intervals of equal size we find a result of order <?CDATA $(\log(N))^{-1}$?> ( log ( N ) ) − 1 , where N is the typical length scale in units of the lattice spacing. One may compute logarithmic negativity in further situations, but we find that the results are non-universal, depending non-smoothly on the Fermi level and the size of the intervals in units of the lattice spacing.

DOI
10.1088/1751-8121/acff9c

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Abstract We employ a mathematical framework based on the Riemann-Hilbert approach developed by Bettelheim et al (2022 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 55 135001) to study logarithmic negativity of two intervals of free fermions in the case where the size of the intervals as well as the distance between them is macroscopic. We find that none of the eigenvalues of the density matrix become negative, but rather they develop a small imaginary value, leading to non-zero logarithmic negativity. As an example, we compute negativity at half-filling and for intervals of equal size we find a result of order <?CDATA $(\log(N))^{-1}$?> ( log ( N ) ) − 1 , where N is the typical length scale in units of the lattice spacing. One may compute logarithmic negativity in further situations, but we find that the results are non-universal, depending non-smoothly on the Fermi level and the size of the intervals in units of the lattice spacing.
Abstract The statistical mechanics characterization of finite subsystems embedded in an infinite system is a fundamental question of quantum physics. Nevertheless, a full closed form for all required entropic measures does not exist in the general case, even for free systems, when the finite system in question is composed of several disjoint intervals. Here we develop a mathematical framework based on the Riemann–Hilbert approach to treat this problem in the one-dimensional case where the finite system is composed of two disjoint intervals and in the thermodynamic limit (both intervals and the space between them contains an infinite number of lattice sites and the result is given as a thermodynamic expansion). To demonstrate the usefulness of our method, we compute the change in the entanglement and negativity spectra namely the spectrum of eigenvalues of the reduced density matrix with or without time reversal of one of the intervals. We do this in the case that the distance between the intervals is much larger than their size. The method we use can be easily applied to compute any power in an expansion in the ratio of the distance between the intervals to their size. We expect these results to provide the necessary mathematical apparatus to address relevant questions in concrete physical scenarios, namely the structure and extent of quantum correlations in fermionic systems subject to local environments.
A basic diagnostic of entanglement in mixed quantum states is known as the positive partial transpose (PT) criterion. Such criterion is based on the observation that the spectrum of the partially transposed density matrix of an entangled state contains negative eigenvalues, in turn, used to define an entanglement measure called the logarithmic negativity. Despite the great success of logarithmic negativity in characterizing bosonic many-body systems, generalizing the operation of PT to fermionic systems remained a technical challenge until recently when a more natural definition of PT for fermions that accounts for the Fermi statistics has been put forward. In this paper, we study the many-body spectrum of the reduced density matrix of two adjacent intervals for one-dimensional free fermions after applying the fermionic PT. We show that in general there is a freedom in the definition of such operation which leads to two different definitions of PT: the resulting density matrix is Hermitian in one case, while it becomes pseudo-Hermitian in the other case. Using the path-integral formalism, we analytically compute the leading order term of the moments in both cases and derive the distribution of the corresponding eigenvalues over the complex plane. We further verify our analytical findings by checking them against numerical lattice calculations.
Over the past two decades, the overlap matrix approach has been developed to compute quantum entanglement in free-fermion systems, particularly to calculate entanglement entropy and entanglement negativity. This method involves the use of partial trace and partial transpose operations within the overlap matrix framework. However, in previous studies, only the conventional partial transpose in fermionic systems has been considered, which does not account for fermionic anticommutation relations. Although the concept of a fermionic partial transpose was introduced by Shapourian et al. [Phys. Rev. B 95, 165101 (2017)], it has not yet been systematically incorporated into the overlap matrix framework. In this paper, we introduce the fermionic partial transpose into the overlap matrix approach, provide a systematic analysis of the validity of partial trace and partial transpose operations, and derive an explicit formula for calculating entanglement negativity in bipartite systems. Additionally, we numerically compute the logarithmic negativity of two lattice models to verify the Gioev-Klich-Widom scaling law. For tripartite geometries, we uncover limitations of the overlap matrix method and demonstrate that the previously reported logarithmic negativity result for a homogeneous one-dimensional chain in a disjoint interval geometry exceeds its theoretical upper bound.
Abstract The entanglement entropy of free fermions with a Fermi surface is known to obey a logarithmic scaling and violate the area law in all dimensions. Here, we would like to see how temperature affects the logarithmic scaling behavior. To this end, we compute the entanglement negativity of free fermions using the fermionic partial transpose developed in our earlier paper (Shapourian et al 2017 Phys. Rev . B 95 165101). In one dimension, we analytically derive the leading order term in the finite-temperature entanglement negativity and show how the entanglement negativity indicates a crossover from a quantum entangled state to a classical thermal state, where the entanglement is completely lost. We explain how the one-dimensional result can be generalized to codimension-one Fermi surface of arbitrary shape in higher dimensions. In both one and two dimensions, we check that our analytical results agree with the numerical simulation of free fermions on a lattice.
We report on a systematic approach for the calculation of the negativity in the ground state of a one-dimensional quantum field theory. The partial transpose of the reduced density matrix of a subsystem A = A 1 ∪ A 2 is explicitly constructed as an imaginary-time path integral and from this the replicated traces are obtained. The logarithmic negativity is then the continuation to n → 1 of the traces of the even powers. For pure states, this procedure reproduces the known results. We then apply this method to conformally invariant field theories (CFTs) in several different physical situations for infinite and finite systems and without or with boundaries. In particular, in the case of two adjacent intervals of lengths ℓ 1 ,ℓ 2 in an infinite system, we derive the result ∼ ( c /4)ln(ℓ 1 ℓ 2 /(ℓ 1 + ℓ 2 )), where c is the central charge. For the more complicated case of two disjoint intervals, we show that the negativity depends only on the harmonic ratio of the four end points and so is manifestly scale invariant. We explicitly calculate the scale invariant functions for the replicated traces in the case of the CFT for the free compactified boson, but we have not so far been able to obtain the n → 1 continuation for the negativity even in the limit of large compactification radius. We have checked all our findings against exact numerical results for the harmonic chain which is described by a non-compactified free boson.
Logarithmic negativity is a proper measure of quantum entanglement in mixed states. Originally proposed in the context of quantum information, in recent years it is attracting interest in quantum field theory, condensed matter physics, and statistical physics. The key object to construct the negativity is the partial transpose of the reduced density matrix. Here, focusing on two adjacent intervals, the authors provide a complete study of the distribution of the eigenvalues of the partial transpose (negativity spectrum) for gapless one-dimensional systems described by a conformal field theory (CFT). Similar to the entanglement spectrum, the distribution of the negativity spectrum is universal, and it depends only on the central charge of the underlying CFT. The precise form of the spectrum depends on whether the two intervals are in a pure or mixed state, and in both cases, a dependence on the sign of the eigenvalues is found. This dependence is weak for bulk eigenvalues, whereas it is strong at the spectrum edges. The authors also investigate the scaling of the smallest (negative) and largest (positive) eigenvalues of the partial transpose. The analytical results are thoroughly checked against numerical DMRG simulations as well as in exactly solvable models.