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arXiv:2603.09763

Capacity of Entanglement and Replica Backreaction in RST Gravity

Raúl Arias, Daniel Fondevila

hep-thcond-mat.stat-mechquant-phSubmitted Mar 10, 2026• Announced Mar 11, 2026
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Abstract

We compute the capacity of entanglement in two dimensional dilaton gravity in a setting where Hawking radiation, backreaction, and islands can be treated analytically. Our focus is the eternal black hole of the Russo Susskind Thorlacius model coupled to N conformal matter fields. Unlike previous gravitational computations, which were mostly carried out in JT gravity, the RST model forces one to deal with a genuinely dynamical conformal factor and with the global constraints of the replica construction. The main technical step is therefore to solve the replica deformation on the orbifold globally at first order near n=1, including the homogeneous sector fixed by single valuedness and by the requirement of a fixed microcanonical state. For a single interval we obtain a time independent generalized capacity, parallel to the generalized entropy. For two intervals, even in the late time factorization regime, the global solution generates an interaction term between replica fixed points; after Lorentzian continuation this produces a time dependent capacity on the two QES saddle, despite the corresponding entropy plateau. We discuss the regime of validity of the resulting expressions and explain how the large size of the two QES capacity implies a highly non uniform saddle competition near n=1, providing a concrete mechanism for sharp features of the capacity at the Page transition.

Comments
29 pages, 4 figures

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We compute the capacity of entanglement in two dimensional dilaton gravity in a setting where Hawking radiation, backreaction, and islands can be treated analytically. Our focus is the eternal black hole of the Russo Susskind Thorlacius model coupled to N conformal matter fields. Unlike previous gravitational computations, which were mostly carried out in JT gravity, the RST model forces one to deal with a genuinely dynamical conformal factor and with the global constraints of the replica construction. The main technical step is therefore to solve the replica deformation on the orbifold globally at first order near n=1, including the homogeneous sector fixed by single valuedness and by the requirement of a fixed microcanonical state. For a single interval we obtain a time independent generalized capacity, parallel to the generalized entropy. For two intervals, even in the late time factorization regime, the global solution generates an interaction term between replica fixed points; after Lorentzian continuation this produces a time dependent capacity on the two QES saddle, despite the corresponding entropy plateau. We discuss the regime of validity of the resulting expressions and explain how the large size of the two QES capacity implies a highly non uniform saddle competition near n=1, providing a concrete mechanism for sharp features of the capacity at the Page transition.
A bstract We consider the problem of computing semi-classical Rényi entropies of CFT on AdS 2 backgrounds in JT gravity with nongravitating baths, for general replica number n . Away from the n → 1 limit, the backreaction of the CFT twist fields on the geometry is nontrivial. For one twist field insertion and general n , we show that the quantum extremal surface (QES) condition involves extremisation of the generalised modular entropy , consistent with Dong’s generalisation of the Ryu-Takayanagi formula for general n . For multiple QES we describe replica wormhole geometries using the theory of Fuchsian uniformisation, explicitly working out the analytically tractable case of the n = 2 double trumpet wormhole geometry. We determine the off-shell dependence of the gravitational action on the QES locations and boundary map. In a factorisation limit, corresponding to late times, we are able to relate this action functional to area terms given by the value of the JT dilaton at the (off-shell) QES locations, with computable corrections. Applied to the two-sided eternal black hole, we find the n -dependent Page times for Rényi enropies in the high temperature limit.
We study thermodynamic properties and the entanglement island of a black hole in asymptotically safe quantum gravity, analyzing key thermodynamic quantities such as the Hawking temperature, heat capacity, and entropy, as well as the mass-horizon radius relation. Unlike Schwarzschild black holes, the temperature decreases with mass near the evaporation endpoint, signaling a phase transition and possible stable remnant. The entanglement entropy of Hawking radiation is obtained both with and without island contributions. Without islands, the radiation entropy grows linearly indefinitely, leading to the information paradox. By including island contributions and extremizing the generalized entropy functional, we resolve this paradox. At late times, the radiation entropy saturates at the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy, confirming unitary evolution. From this, we derive the Page time and scrambling time by equating early- and late-time entanglement entropies. The result of this study establishes the finiteness of the radiation entropy and consistency with quantum mechanics.
We consider the capacity of entanglement in models related with the gravitational phase transitions. The capacity is labeled by the replica parameter which plays a similar role to the inverse temperature in thermodynamics. In the end of the world brane model of a radiating black hole the capacity has a peak around the Page time indicating the phase transition between replica wormhole geometries of different types of topology. Similarly, in a moving mirror model describing Hawking radiation the capacity typically shows a discontinuity when the dominant saddle switches between two phases, which can be seen as a formation of island regions. In either case we find the capacity can be an invaluable diagnostic for a black hole evaporation process.
Black hole islands are usually diagnosed through the von Neumann entropy, but the full replica saddle contains more information than survives in the limit n→1n \to 1n→1. In this paper we show that the capacity of entanglement can detect that extra structure already within the controlled factorized island branch of JT gravity coupled to a large-ccc bath. In the late-time high-temperature regime, the entropy plateau remains unchanged at the first nontrivial order, while the capacity acquires a definite correction. This provides a sharp semiclassical example in which nearby replica data are physically meaningful even when the entropy itself appears rigid. Our result shows that the factorized island saddle already carries finite-nnn information beyond the entropy, and that the capacity is a natural observable for exposing it. More broadly, it highlights that the physics of island saddles is not exhausted by the n=1n=1n=1 limit: the surrounding replica geometry can contain additional, and observable, information about how the semiclassical saddle is assembled.
A bstract Recent work has shown how to obtain the Page curve of an evaporating black hole from holographic computations of entanglement entropy. We show how these computations can be justified using the replica trick, from geometries with a spacetime wormhole connecting the different replicas. In a simple model, we study the Page transition in detail by summing replica geometries with different topologies. We compute related quantities in less detail in more complicated models, including JT gravity coupled to conformal matter and the SYK model. Separately, we give a direct gravitational argument for entanglement wedge reconstruction using an explicit formula known as the Petz map; again, a spacetime wormhole plays an important role. We discuss an interpretation of the wormhole geometries as part of some ensemble average implicit in the gravity description.
A large part of the discussion on entanglement islands has explored the specific setup of 2d2d2d JT gravity with a flat heatbath coupled to a 2d2d2d CFT. In this paper, we consider a more general setup and treatment of islands in a d−d-d−dimensional AdS black hole background. The quantum fields modeling the Hawking radiation have a scale and are consistently inherited from a conformal parent theory; their symmetries are thus compatible with those of curved backgrounds. We demonstrate explicitly that the existence of islands is sensitive to the choice of CFT used to model the Hawking radiation. We compute the renormalised entanglement entropy of conformal fields on a negatively curved background in ddd dimensions at zero temperature as well as the thermal regulated entropy of an entangling region near the UV boundary. Using the latter quantity as the entropy of the Hawking radiation, we find that islands never emerge for d>2d>2d>2.