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arXiv:2603.10117

Entanglement and Renormalization Group Irreversibility of Quantum Field Theory in AdS

Nicolás Abate, Ignacio Salazar, Gonzalo Torroba

Published Mar 10, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

We study nonperturbative aspects of quantum field theory (QFT) in rigid anti de Sitter (AdS) spacetime using quantum information theoretic methods. While irreversibility of renormalization group (RG) flows is well established in flat space, it is not obvious whether it persists in AdS, where negative curvature and an asymptotic timelike boundary significantly modify infrared dynamics. Using strong subadditivity and AdS invariance, we derive an entropic second-order differential inequality for the difference between the vacuum entanglement entropy of a QFT and that of its ultraviolet fixed point, evaluated for spherical bulk regions. This inequality allows us to define RG charges that measure the relevant number of degrees of freedom, and we prove the irreversibility of the RG in $2,\,3,$ and $4$ spacetime dimensions. We further analyze free scalar and fermion theories in AdS, developing lattice formulations adapted to the geometry and computing entanglement entropies and RG charges. In AdS$_2$, we obtain analytic results for a massive Dirac fermion and compare them with numerical lattice calculations. These examples illustrate the general irreversibility theorem and clarify the distinction between conformal and massive theories in AdS.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2603.10117

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We study nonperturbative aspects of quantum field theory (QFT) in rigid anti de Sitter (AdS) spacetime using quantum information theoretic methods. While irreversibility of renormalization group (RG) flows is well established in flat space, it is not obvious whether it persists in AdS, where negative curvature and an asymptotic timelike boundary significantly modify infrared dynamics. Using strong subadditivity and AdS invariance, we derive an entropic second-order differential inequality for the difference between the vacuum entanglement entropy of a QFT and that of its ultraviolet fixed point, evaluated for spherical bulk regions. This inequality allows us to define RG charges that measure the relevant number of degrees of freedom, and we prove the irreversibility of the RG in 2, 3,2,\,3,2,3, and 444 spacetime dimensions. We further analyze free scalar and fermion theories in AdS, developing lattice formulations adapted to the geometry and computing entanglement entropies and RG charges. In AdS2_22​, we obtain analytic results for a massive Dirac fermion and compare them with numerical lattice calculations. These examples illustrate the general irreversibility theorem and clarify the distinction between conformal and massive theories in AdS.
We compute entanglement entropy for free massive scalar fields in anti-de Sitter (AdS) space. The entangling surface is a minimal surface whose boundary is a sphere at the boundary of AdS. The entropy can be evaluated from the thermal free energy of the fields on a topological black hole by using the replica method. In odd-dimensional AdS, exact expressions of the Rényi entropy S n are obtained for arbitrary n. We also evaluate 1-loop corrections coming from the scalar fields to holographic entanglement entropy. Applying the results, we compute the leading difference of entanglement entropy between two holographic CFTs related by a renormalization group flow triggered by a double trace deformation. The difference is proportional to the shift of a central charge under the flow.
A bstract Quantum Field Theories (QFTs) in Anti-de Sitter (AdS) spacetime are often strongly coupled when the radius of AdS is large, and few methods are available to study them. In this work, we develop a Hamiltonian truncation method to compute the energy spectrum of QFTs in two-dimensional AdS. The infinite volume of constant timeslices of AdS leads to divergences in the energy levels. We propose a simple prescription to obtain finite physical energies and test it with numerical diagonalization in several models: the free massive scalar field, ϕ 4 theory, Lee-Yang and Ising field theory. Along the way, we discuss spontaneous symmetry breaking in AdS and derive a compact formula for perturbation theory in quantum mechanics at arbitrary order. Our results suggest that all conformal boundary conditions for a given theory are connected via bulk renormalization group flows in AdS.
Abstract The vacuum entanglement entropy in quantum field theory provides nonperturbative information about renormalization group flows. Most studies so far have focused on the universal terms, related to the Weyl anomaly in even space-time dimensions, and the sphere free energy F in odd dimensions. In this work we study the entanglement entropy on a sphere of radius R in a large radius limit, for field theories with gravity duals. At large radius the entropy admits a geometric expansion in powers of R; the leading term is the well-known area term, and we also consider the subleading contributions. These terms can be physical, they contain information about the full renormalization group flow, and they reproduce known monotonicity theorems in particular cases. We set up an efficient method for calculating them using the Hamilton-Jacobi equation for the holographic entanglement entropy. We first reproduce the known result for the area term, the coefficient multiplying Rd−2 in the entanglement entropy. We then obtain the holographic result for the Rd−4 term and establish its irreversibility. Finally, we derive the Rd−6 coefficient for holographic theories, and also establish its irreversibility. This result goes beyond what has been proved in quantum field theory based on strong subadditivity, and hints towards new methods for analyzing the monotonicity of the renormalization group in space-time dimensions bigger than four.
We develop a renormalization method for holographic entanglement entropy based on area renormalization of entangling surfaces. The renormalized entanglement en-tropy is derived for entangling surfaces in asymptotically locally anti-de Sitter spacetimes in general dimensions and for entangling surfaces in four dimensional holographic renor-malization group flows. The renormalized entanglement entropy for disk regions in AdS 4 spacetimes agrees precisely with the holographically renormalized action for AdS 4 with spherical slicing and hence with the F quantity, in accordance with the Casini-Huerta-Myers map. We present a generic class of holographic RG flows associated with deforma-tions by operators of dimension 3/2 < Δ < 5/2 for which the F quantity increases along the RG flow, hence violating the strong version of the F theorem. We conclude by explaining how the renormalized entanglement entropy can be derived directly from the renormalized partition function using the replica trick i.e. our renormalization method for the entangle-ment entropy is inherited directly from that of the partition function. We show explicitly how the entanglement entropy counterterms can be derived from the standard holographic renormalization counterterms for asymptotically locally anti-de Sitter spacetimes.
We explore entanglement entropy of a cap-like region for a generic quantum field theory residing in the Bunch-Davies vacuum on de Sitter space. Entanglement entropy in our setup is identical with the thermal entropy in the static patch of de Sitter, and we derive a simple relation between the vacuum expectation value of the energy-momentum tensor trace and the RG flow of entanglement entropy. In particular, renormalization of the bare couplings and logarithmic divergence of the entanglement entropy are interrelated in our setup. We confirm our findings by recovering known universal contributions for a free field theory deformed by a mass operator as well as obtain correct universal behaviour at the fixed points. Simple examples of entanglement entropy flows are elaborated in d=2,3,4. Inthreedimensionswefindthatwhiletherenormalizedentanglemententropy is stationary at the fixed points, it is not monotonic. We provide a computational evidence that the universal ‘area law’ for a conformally coupled scalar is different from the known result in the literature, and argue that this difference survives in the limit of flat space. Finally, we carry out the spectral decomposition of entanglement entropy flow and discuss its application to the F-theorem.