Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:2610.33179

The Free Scalar as a Thermal Envelope for Three-Dimensional CFTs

Christopher P. Herzog, Andreas Stergiou

Published Oct 23, 2026• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We conjecture that every unitary three-dimensional conformal field theory obeys $c_S/C_T\leq16πζ(3)$, where $s=c_ST^2$ is the thermal entropy density and $C_T$ the stress-tensor two-point coefficient, with equality for free scalars. We embed this in a stronger conjecture: on $S^1\times H^2$, the $C_T$-normalized hyperbolic heat capacity is bounded above by that of the free scalar for all $T\geq(2πR)^{-1}$. Near the conformal temperature, for theories smooth from the high-temperature side and without boundary terms in the modular Hamiltonian, the heat-capacity bound follows from conformal-collider positivity. We test the conjectures in free, interacting large-$N$, and holographic theories. Monte Carlo data for the three-dimensional Ising and $O(N)$ models also obey the flat-space bound.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2610.33179

Related papers

Conformal Bounds in Three Dimensions from Entanglement Entropy

Pablo Bueno, Horacio Casini, Óscar Lasso Andino +1 more

The entanglement entropy of an arbitrary spacetime region A in a three-dimensional conformal field theory (CFT) contains a constant universal coefficient, F(A). For general theories, the value of F(A) is minimized when A is a round disk, F_{0}, and in that case it coincides with the Euclidean free energy on the sphere. We conjecture that, for general CFTs, the quantity F(A)/F_{0} is bounded above by the free scalar field result and below by the Maxwell field one. We provide strong evidence in favor of this claim and argue that an analogous conjecture in the four-dimensional case is equivalent to the Hofman-Maldacena bounds. In three dimensions, our conjecture gives rise to similar bounds on the quotients of various constants characterizing the CFT. In particular, it implies that the quotient of the stress-tensor two-point function coefficient and the sphere free energy satisfies C_{T}/F_{0}≤3/(4π^{2}log2-6ζ[3])≃0.14887 for general CFTs. We verify the validity of this bound for free scalars and fermions, general O(N) and Gross-Neveu models, holographic theories, N=2 Wess-Zumino models and general ABJM theories.

arXiv:2307.05164•Physical Review Letters•Oct 25, 2023•11 citations

Entanglement Bounds on Cardy Growth in Higher Dimensions

Yuya Kusuki, Yin Tang

We propose bounds relating thermal entropy to entanglement in unitary conformal field theories: $f\le4π^2a$ in four dimensions and $f\le2.99830949\ldots\,F$ in three dimensions. Here $f$ is the dimensionless coefficient of the cosmological constant term in the thermal effective action, $a$ is the Euler anomaly coefficient, and $F$ is the sphere free energy. Spherical Rényi entropy relates the four-dimensional bound to the conformal collider bounds. We formulate a stronger conjectural inequality involving the stress-tensor three-point function, saturated by every free theory, and establish it in controlled regimes of weakly coupled gauge theories, large-$N$ vector models, and holographic CFTs. Finite-$N$ numerical results provide additional tests. The bounds constrain the Cardy growth of the density of states at high energy.

arXiv:2610.37449•Oct 27, 2026•0 citations

Entanglement entropy and conformal bounds for d = 5 CFTs

Pablo Bueno, Adam Fernández García, Francesco Gentile +2 more

A bstract The entanglement entropy of spacetime regions A in odd-dimensional conformal field theories (CFTs) contains a universal constant term, $$ {\left(-1\right)}^{\frac{d-1}{2}}\ F(A) $$ − 1 d − 1 2 F A . This quantity can be robustly defined by considering the mutual information of pairs of slightly deformed versions of A . In the case of general three-dimensional CFTs, F ( A ) is positive definite and bounded below by the round disk result, F ( A ) ≥ F 0 ≡ F ( ∂A = 𝕊 1 ). Additionally, strong evidence has been provided that for every region A , F ( A ) /F 0 is maximized, within the space of CFT 3 ’s, by the free scalar field result. In this paper we show that while F ( A ) remains a local minimum around F 0 ≡ F ( ∂A = 𝕊 3 ) for small deformations of the spherical entangling surface, it can take values of arbitrarily large magnitude with either sign for more general regions, and hence it is neither upper- nor lower-bounded in general CFT 5 ’s. We argue that an analogous conjecture regarding the extremization of F ( A ) /F 0 for general regions within the space of theories fails in d = 5. We instead analyze the viability of the weaker bound, F ϵ /F 0 ≤ F ϵ /F 0 | free scalar , ∀CFT 5 for general small geometric deformations of the spherical entangling surface. This is equivalent to a general constraint involving the stress-tensor two-point function C T and the Euclidean partition function on the sphere, namely, C T /F 0 ≤ C T /F 0 | free scalar ≈ 0 . 314, which we show to hold for all known CFT 5 ’s. We also comment on possible extensions of this result to higher dimensions.

arXiv:2604.01436•Journal of High Energy Physics•Aug 17, 2026•0 citations

Universal spectrum of 2d conformal field theory in the large c limit

Thomas Hartman, Christoph A. Keller, Bogdan Stoica

Two-dimensional conformal field theories exhibit a universal free energy in the high temperature limit T → ∞, and a universal spectrum in the Cardy regime, Δ → ∞. We show that a much stronger form of universality holds in theories with a large central charge c and a sparse light spectrum. In these theories, the free energy is universal at all values of the temperature, and the microscopic spectrum matches the Cardy entropy for all $$ \Delta \ge \frac{c}{6} $$ . The same is true of three-dimensional quantum gravity; therefore our results provide simple necessary and sufficient criteria for 2d CFTs to behave holographically in terms of the leading spectrum and thermodynamics. We also discuss several applications to CFT and gravity, including operator dimension bounds derived from the modular bootstrap, universality in symmetric orbifolds, and the role of non-universal ‘enigma’ saddlepoints in the thermodynamics of 3d gravity.

arXiv:1405.5137•Journal of High Energy Physics•Sep 1, 2014•396 citations

Universal corner entanglement from twist operators

Pablo Bueno, Robert C. Myers, William Witczak‐Krempa

The entanglement entropy in three-dimensional conformal field theories (CFTs) receives a logarithmic contribution characterized by a regulator-independent function a(θ) when the entangling surface contains a sharp corner with opening angle θ. In the limit of a smooth surface (θ → π), this corner contribution vanishes as a(θ) = σ(θ − π)2. In arXiv:1505.04804 , we provided evidence for the conjecture that for any d = 3 CFT, this corner coefficient σ is determined by C T , the coefficient appearing in the two-point function of the stress tensor. Here, we argue that this is an instance of a much more general relation connecting the analogous corner coefficient σ n appearing in the nth Rényi entropy and the scaling dimension h n of the corresponding twist operator. In particular, we find the simple relation h n /σ n = (n − 1)π. We show how it reduces to our previous result as n → 1, and explicitly check its validity for free scalars and fermions. With this new relation, we show that as n → 0, σ n yields the coefficient of the thermal entropy, c S . We also reveal a surprising duality relating the corner coefficients of the scalar and the fermion. Further, we use our result to predict σ n for holographic CFTs dual to four-dimensional Einstein gravity. Our findings generalize to other dimensions, and we emphasize the connection to the interval Rényi entropies of d = 2 CFTs.

arXiv:1507.06997•Journal of High Energy Physics•Sep 1, 2015•84 citations

Universality of Corner Entanglement in Conformal Field Theories

Pablo Bueno, Robert Cobb Myers, William Witczak‐Krempa

We study the contribution to the entanglement entropy of (2+1)-dimensional conformal field theories (CFTs) coming from a sharp corner in the entangling surface. This contribution is encoded in a function a(θ) of the corner opening angle, and was recently proposed as a measure of the degrees of freedom in the underlying CFT. We show that the ratio a(θ)/C(T), where C(T) is the central charge in the stress tensor correlator, is an almost universal quantity for a broad class of theories including various higher-curvature holographic models, free scalars, and fermions, and Wilson-Fisher fixed points of the O(N) models with N=1,2,3. Strikingly, the agreement between these different theories becomes exact in the limit θ→π, where the entangling surface approaches a smooth curve. We thus conjecture that the corresponding ratio is universal for general CFTs in three dimensions.

arXiv:1505.04804•Physical Review Letters•Jul 8, 2015•173 citations
We conjecture that every unitary three-dimensional conformal field theory obeys cS/CT≤16πζ(3)c_S/C_T\leq16πζ(3)cS​/CT​≤16πζ(3), where s=cST2s=c_ST^2s=cS​T2 is the thermal entropy density and CTC_TCT​ the stress-tensor two-point coefficient, with equality for free scalars. We embed this in a stronger conjecture: on S1×H2S^1\times H^2S1×H2, the CTC_TCT​-normalized hyperbolic heat capacity is bounded above by that of the free scalar for all T≥(2πR)−1T\geq(2πR)^{-1}T≥(2πR)−1. Near the conformal temperature, for theories smooth from the high-temperature side and without boundary terms in the modular Hamiltonian, the heat-capacity bound follows from conformal-collider positivity. We test the conjectures in free, interacting large-NNN, and holographic theories. Monte Carlo data for the three-dimensional Ising and O(N)O(N)O(N) models also obey the flat-space bound.
The entanglement entropy of an arbitrary spacetime region A in a three-dimensional conformal field theory (CFT) contains a constant universal coefficient, F(A). For general theories, the value of F(A) is minimized when A is a round disk, F_{0}, and in that case it coincides with the Euclidean free energy on the sphere. We conjecture that, for general CFTs, the quantity F(A)/F_{0} is bounded above by the free scalar field result and below by the Maxwell field one. We provide strong evidence in favor of this claim and argue that an analogous conjecture in the four-dimensional case is equivalent to the Hofman-Maldacena bounds. In three dimensions, our conjecture gives rise to similar bounds on the quotients of various constants characterizing the CFT. In particular, it implies that the quotient of the stress-tensor two-point function coefficient and the sphere free energy satisfies C_{T}/F_{0}≤3/(4π^{2}log2-6ζ[3])≃0.14887 for general CFTs. We verify the validity of this bound for free scalars and fermions, general O(N) and Gross-Neveu models, holographic theories, N=2 Wess-Zumino models and general ABJM theories.
We propose bounds relating thermal entropy to entanglement in unitary conformal field theories: f≤4π2af\le4π^2af≤4π2a in four dimensions and f≤2.99830949… Ff\le2.99830949\ldots\,Ff≤2.99830949…F in three dimensions. Here fff is the dimensionless coefficient of the cosmological constant term in the thermal effective action, aaa is the Euler anomaly coefficient, and FFF is the sphere free energy. Spherical Rényi entropy relates the four-dimensional bound to the conformal collider bounds. We formulate a stronger conjectural inequality involving the stress-tensor three-point function, saturated by every free theory, and establish it in controlled regimes of weakly coupled gauge theories, large-NNN vector models, and holographic CFTs. Finite-NNN numerical results provide additional tests. The bounds constrain the Cardy growth of the density of states at high energy.
A bstract The entanglement entropy of spacetime regions A in odd-dimensional conformal field theories (CFTs) contains a universal constant term, (−1)d−12 F(A) {\left(-1\right)}^{\frac{d-1}{2}}\ F(A) (−1)2d−1​ F(A) − 1 d − 1 2 F A . This quantity can be robustly defined by considering the mutual information of pairs of slightly deformed versions of A . In the case of general three-dimensional CFTs, F ( A ) is positive definite and bounded below by the round disk result, F ( A ) ≥ F 0 ≡ F ( ∂A = 𝕊 1 ). Additionally, strong evidence has been provided that for every region A , F ( A ) /F 0 is maximized, within the space of CFT 3 ’s, by the free scalar field result. In this paper we show that while F ( A ) remains a local minimum around F 0 ≡ F ( ∂A = 𝕊 3 ) for small deformations of the spherical entangling surface, it can take values of arbitrarily large magnitude with either sign for more general regions, and hence it is neither upper- nor lower-bounded in general CFT 5 ’s. We argue that an analogous conjecture regarding the extremization of F ( A ) /F 0 for general regions within the space of theories fails in d = 5. We instead analyze the viability of the weaker bound, F ϵ /F 0 ≤ F ϵ /F 0 | free scalar , ∀CFT 5 for general small geometric deformations of the spherical entangling surface. This is equivalent to a general constraint involving the stress-tensor two-point function C T and the Euclidean partition function on the sphere, namely, C T /F 0 ≤ C T /F 0 | free scalar ≈ 0 . 314, which we show to hold for all known CFT 5 ’s. We also comment on possible extensions of this result to higher dimensions.
Two-dimensional conformal field theories exhibit a universal free energy in the high temperature limit T → ∞, and a universal spectrum in the Cardy regime, Δ → ∞. We show that a much stronger form of universality holds in theories with a large central charge c and a sparse light spectrum. In these theories, the free energy is universal at all values of the temperature, and the microscopic spectrum matches the Cardy entropy for all Δ≥c6 \Delta \ge \frac{c}{6} Δ≥6c​ . The same is true of three-dimensional quantum gravity; therefore our results provide simple necessary and sufficient criteria for 2d CFTs to behave holographically in terms of the leading spectrum and thermodynamics. We also discuss several applications to CFT and gravity, including operator dimension bounds derived from the modular bootstrap, universality in symmetric orbifolds, and the role of non-universal ‘enigma’ saddlepoints in the thermodynamics of 3d gravity.
The entanglement entropy in three-dimensional conformal field theories (CFTs) receives a logarithmic contribution characterized by a regulator-independent function a(θ) when the entangling surface contains a sharp corner with opening angle θ. In the limit of a smooth surface (θ → π), this corner contribution vanishes as a(θ) = σ(θ − π)2. In arXiv:1505.04804 , we provided evidence for the conjecture that for any d = 3 CFT, this corner coefficient σ is determined by C T , the coefficient appearing in the two-point function of the stress tensor. Here, we argue that this is an instance of a much more general relation connecting the analogous corner coefficient σ n appearing in the nth Rényi entropy and the scaling dimension h n of the corresponding twist operator. In particular, we find the simple relation h n /σ n = (n − 1)π. We show how it reduces to our previous result as n → 1, and explicitly check its validity for free scalars and fermions. With this new relation, we show that as n → 0, σ n yields the coefficient of the thermal entropy, c S . We also reveal a surprising duality relating the corner coefficients of the scalar and the fermion. Further, we use our result to predict σ n for holographic CFTs dual to four-dimensional Einstein gravity. Our findings generalize to other dimensions, and we emphasize the connection to the interval Rényi entropies of d = 2 CFTs.
We study the contribution to the entanglement entropy of (2+1)-dimensional conformal field theories (CFTs) coming from a sharp corner in the entangling surface. This contribution is encoded in a function a(θ) of the corner opening angle, and was recently proposed as a measure of the degrees of freedom in the underlying CFT. We show that the ratio a(θ)/C(T), where C(T) is the central charge in the stress tensor correlator, is an almost universal quantity for a broad class of theories including various higher-curvature holographic models, free scalars, and fermions, and Wilson-Fisher fixed points of the O(N) models with N=1,2,3. Strikingly, the agreement between these different theories becomes exact in the limit θ→π, where the entangling surface approaches a smooth curve. We thus conjecture that the corresponding ratio is universal for general CFTs in three dimensions.