Typical entropy of a subsystem: Page curve and its variance.
Eugenio Bianchi A, Pietro Donà
Abstract
In a quantum system in a pure state, a subsystem generally has a non-zero entropy because of entanglement with the rest of the system. Is the average entanglement entropy of pure states also the typical entropy of the subsystem? The exact formula for the average $\langle{S_{A}}\rangle$ was conjectured by Page in 1995 and later proved. Here we compute the exact formula for the average entropy and variance $(\Delta S_A)^2 = \langle{S_A}^2\rangle - \langle{S_A}\rangle{}^2$ both for random pure states and for energy eigenstates of a non-interacting system. We show that for large systems the variance is small, $\Delta S_A/\langle{S_{A}}\rangle\ll 1$, and therefore the average entanglement entropy is typical. We compare exact and numerical results for the probability distribution $P(S_A) \mathrm{d}S_A$, and comment on the relation to previous results on concentration of measure bounds. We discuss the application to physical systems in an energy eigenstate. In particular, for a system of non-interacting spins in a magnetic field, we show how the thermal entropy arises as the typical entanglement entropy of a subsystem.