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arXiv:2510.22601 · Journal of High Energy Physics

Quantum bit threads and the entropohedron

Matthew Headrick, Sreeman Reddy Kasireddy, Andrew Rolph

Published Apr 24, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

A bstract We derive several new quantum bit thread prescriptions for holographic entanglement entropy, equivalent for static states to the quantum extremal surface formula. Our new prescriptions come in many varieties: vector field-based or based on measures over bulk curves, dependent or independent of the bulk UV regulator, loose and strict versions of constraints, and more. We also explore how bit threads behave in the presence of entanglement islands and baby universes. Finally, our prescriptions inspire new measures of entanglement that we call entanglement distribution functions, which can be packaged into a convex polytope that we call the entropohedron. A video abstract is available at https://youtu.be/xSyRAXkPpdw .

DOI
10.1007/jhep04(2026)196

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A bstract We derive several new quantum bit thread prescriptions for holographic entanglement entropy, equivalent for static states to the quantum extremal surface formula. Our new prescriptions come in many varieties: vector field-based or based on measures over bulk curves, dependent or independent of the bulk UV regulator, loose and strict versions of constraints, and more. We also explore how bit threads behave in the presence of entanglement islands and baby universes. Finally, our prescriptions inspire new measures of entanglement that we call entanglement distribution functions, which can be packaged into a convex polytope that we call the entropohedron. A video abstract is available at https://youtu.be/xSyRAXkPpdw .
Abstract Quantum corrections to holographic entanglement entropy require knowledge of the bulk quantum state. In this paper, we derive a novel dual prescription for the generalized entropy that allows us to interpret the leading quantum corrections in a geometric way with minimal input from the bulk state. The equivalence is proven using tools borrowed from convex optimization. The new prescription does not involve bulk surfaces but instead uses a generalized notion of a flow, which allows for possible sources or sinks in the bulk geometry. In its discrete version, our prescription can alternatively be interpreted in terms of a set of Planck-thickness bit threads, which can be either classical or quantum. This interpretation uncovers an aspect of the generalized entropy that admits a neat information-theoretic description, namely, the fact that the quantum corrections can be cast in terms of entanglement distillation of the bulk state. We also prove some general properties of our prescription, including nesting and a quantum version of the max multiflow theorem. These properties are used to verify that our proposal respects known inequalities that a von Neumann entropy must satisfy, including subadditivity and strong subadditivity, as well as to investigate the fate of the holographic monogamy. Finally, using the Iyer-Wald formalism we show that for cases with a local modular Hamiltonian there is always a canonical solution to the program that exploits the property of bulk locality. Combining with previous results by Swingle and Van Raamsdonk, we show that the con- sistency of this special solution requires the semi-classical Einstein’s equations to hold for any consistent perturbative bulk quantum state.
A bstract We revisit the recent reformulation of the holographic prescription to compute entanglement entropy in terms of a convex optimization problem, introduced by Freedman and Headrick. According to it, the holographic entanglement entropy associated to a boundary region is given by the maximum flux of a bounded, divergenceless vector field, through the corresponding region. Our work leads to two main results: (i) We present a general algorithm that allows the construction of explicit thread configurations in cases where the minimal surface is known. We illustrate the method with simple examples: spheres and strips in vacuum AdS, and strips in a black brane geometry. Studying more generic bulk metrics, we uncover a sufficient set of conditions on the geometry and matter fields that must hold to be able to use our prescription. (ii) Based on the nesting property of holographic entanglement entropy, we develop a method to construct bit threads that maximize the flux through a given bulk region. As a byproduct, we are able to construct more general thread configurations by combining (i) and (ii) in multiple patches. We apply our methods to study bit threads which simultaneously compute the entanglement entropy and the entanglement of purification of mixed states and comment on their interpretation in terms of entanglement distillation. We also consider the case of disjoint regions for which we can explicitly construct the so-called multi-commodity flows and show that the monogamy property of mutual information can be easily illustrated from our constructions.
Abstract Recently, an effective membrane theory was proposed that describes the “hydrodynamic” regime of the entanglement dynamics for general chaotic systems. Motivated by the new bit threads formulation of holographic entanglement entropy, given in terms of a convex optimization problem based on flow maximization, or equivalently tight packing of bit threads, we reformulate the membrane theory as a max flow problem by proving a max flow-min cut theorem. In the context of holography, we explain the relation between the max flow program dual to the membrane theory and the max flow program dual to the holographic surface extremization prescription by providing an explicit map from the membrane to the bulk, and derive the former from the latter in the “hydrodynamic” regime without reference to minimal surfaces or membranes.
A bstract We give a scheme to geometrize the partial entanglement entropy (PEE) for holographic CFT in the context of AdS/CFT. More explicitly, given a point x we geometrize the two-point PEEs between x and any other points in terms of the bulk geodesics connecting these two points. We refer to these geodesics as the PEE threads , which can be naturally regarded as the integral curves of a divergenceless vector field Vxμ {V}_{\textbf{x}}^{\mu } Vxμ​ V x μ , which we call PEE thread flow . The norm of Vxμ {V}_{\textbf{x}}^{\mu } Vxμ​ V x μ that characterizes the density of the PEE threads can be determined by some physical requirements of the PEE. We show that, for any static interval or spherical region A , a unique bit thread configuration can be generated from the PEE thread configuration determined by the state. Hence, the non-intrinsic bit threads are emergent from the intrinsic PEE threads. For static disconnected intervals, the vector fields describing a divergenceless flow is no longer suitable to reproduce the RT formula. We weight a PEE thread with the number of times it intersects with any homologous surface. Instead, the RT formula is perfectly reformulated by the minimization of the summation of PEE threads with all possible assignment of weights.
Bit threads, arising as the convex dual of the minimal-surface formula for holographic entanglement entropy, are line-like structures with nontrivial bulk trajectories. Their physical picture has long been associated with Bell-pair interpretations, yet the meaning of their detailed trajectories, particularly their nonuniqueness, remains unclear. We propose to apply Coecke's notion of quantum information flow (QIF) in protocol-network geometry, developed within categorical quantum mechanics, to a holographic setup, and show that its trajectories within the discrete holographic bulk---the tensor network---obey the divergence-free and density-bound conditions of bit threads. From this process-centered perspective, bit-thread nonuniqueness becomes natural: for a given resource state, different protocols realizing the same distillation task can give rise to different QIF trajectories. We further analyze stabilizer-type holographic tensor networks using ZX string diagrams and show that QIF trajectories can probe finer entanglement structure beyond the level captured by entanglement entropy.