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arXiv:2403.03136 · Journal of High Energy Physics

Entanglement entropy of a scalar field in a squeezed state

Dimitrios Katsinis, Georgios Pastras, N. Tetradis

Published Oct 24, 2024• 5 citations
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Abstract

A bstract We study the entanglement entropy within a spherical region for a free scalar field in a squeezed state in 3 + 1 dimensions. We show that, even for small squeezing, a volume term appears, whose coefficient is essentially independent of the field mass. This is in line with Page’s argument that the entanglement entropy in an arbitrary quantum state is proportional to the number of degrees of freedom of the smaller subsystem. It follows that squeezed states can be considered as arbitrary quantum states, in contrast to the ground or coherent states that give rise to entanglement entropy dominated by a term proportional to the area of the entangling surface.

DOI
10.1007/jhep10(2024)173

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A bstract We study the entanglement entropy within a spherical region for a free scalar field in a squeezed state in 3 + 1 dimensions. We show that, even for small squeezing, a volume term appears, whose coefficient is essentially independent of the field mass. This is in line with Page’s argument that the entanglement entropy in an arbitrary quantum state is proportional to the number of degrees of freedom of the smaller subsystem. It follows that squeezed states can be considered as arbitrary quantum states, in contrast to the ground or coherent states that give rise to entanglement entropy dominated by a term proportional to the area of the entangling surface.
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A scalar field in the ground state, when partially hidden from observation by a spherical boundary, acquires entanglement entropy SSS proportional to the area of the surface. This area law is well established in flat space, where it follows almost directly from dimensional arguments. We study its validity in an Einstein universe, whose curvature provides an additional physical parameter on which the entropy could, in principle, depend. The surprisingly simple result is that the entanglement entropy still scales linearly with the area. This is supported by other observations to the effect that the entanglement entropy arises mostly from degrees of freedom near the boundary, making it insensitive to the large-scale geometry of the background space.
We revisit the problem of finding the entanglement entropy of a scalar field on a lattice by tracing over its degrees of freedom inside a sphere. It is known that this entropy satisfies the area law---entropy proportional to the area of the sphere---when the field is assumed to be in its ground state. We show that the area law continues to hold when the scalar field degrees of freedom are in generic coherent states and a class of squeezed states. However, when excited states are considered, the entropy scales as a lower power of the area. This suggests that, for large horizons, the ground state entropy dominates, whereas entropy due to excited states gives power-law corrections. We discuss possible implications of this result to black hole entropy.
It is known that the entanglement entropy of a scalar field, found by tracing over its degrees of freedom inside a sphere of radius [Formula: see text], is proportional to the area of the sphere (and not its volume). This suggests that the origin of black-hole entropy, also proportional to its horizon area, may lie in the entanglement between the degrees of freedom inside and outside the horizon. We examine this proposal carefully by including excited states, to check probable deviations from the area law.PACS Nos.: 04.60.–m, 04.62, 04.70.–s, 03.65.Ud