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Looking at shadows of entanglement wedges

Yuya Kusuki, Yu-ki Suzuki, Tadashi Takayanagi, Koji Umemoto

Published Nov 1, 2020• 34 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

We present a new method of deriving shapes of entanglement wedges directly from conformal field theory (CFT) calculations. We point out that a reduced density matrix in holographic CFTs possesses a sharp wedge structure such that inside the wedge we can distinguish two local excitations, while outside we cannot. We can determine this wedge, which we call a CFT wedge, by computing a distinguishability measure. We find that CFT wedges defined by the fidelity or Bures distance as a distinguishability measure coincide perfectly with shadows of entanglement wedges in anti-de Sitter (AdS)/CFT. We confirm this agreement between CFT wedges and entanglement wedges for two-dimensional holographic CFTs where the subsystem is chosen to be an interval or double intervals, as well as higher-dimensional CFTs with a round ball subsystem. On the other hand, if we consider a free scalar CFT, we find that there are no sharp CFT wedges. This shows that sharp entanglement wedges emerge only for holographic CFTs owing to the large-N factorization. We also generalize our analysis to a time-dependent example and to a holographic boundary conformal field theory (AdS/BCFT). Finally, we study other distinguishability measures to define CFT wedges. We observe that some of the measures lead to CFT wedges which slightly deviate from the entanglement wedges in AdS/CFT, and we give a heuristic explanation for this. This paper is an extended version of our earlier letter (arXiv:1908.09939 [hep-th]) and includes various new observations and examples.

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Looking at shadows of entanglement wedges

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Abstract We present a new method of deriving shapes of entanglement wedges directly from conformal field theory (CFT) calculations. We point out that a reduced density matrix in holographic CFTs possesses a sharp wedge structure such that inside the wedge we can distinguish two local excitations, while outside we cannot. We can determine this wedge, which we call a CFT wedge, by computing a distinguishability measure. We find that CFT wedges defined by the fidelity or Bures distance as a distinguishability measure coincide perfectly with shadows of entanglement wedges in anti-de Sitter (AdS)/CFT. We confirm this agreement between CFT wedges and entanglement wedges for two-dimensional holographic CFTs where the subsystem is chosen to be an interval or double intervals, as well as higher-dimensional CFTs with a round ball subsystem. On the other hand, if we consider a free scalar CFT, we find that there are no sharp CFT wedges. This shows that sharp entanglement wedges emerge only for holographic CFTs owing to the large-$N$ factorization. We also generalize our analysis to a time-dependent example and to a holographic boundary conformal field theory (AdS/BCFT). Finally, we study other distinguishability measures to define CFT wedges. We observe that some of the measures lead to CFT wedges which slightly deviate from the entanglement wedges in AdS/CFT, and we give a heuristic explanation for this. This paper is an extended version of our earlier letter (arXiv:1908.09939 [hep-th]) and includes various new observations and examples.

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This is an extended version of our short report hep-th/0603001, where a holographic interpretation of entanglement entropy in conformal field theories is proposed from AdS/CFT correspondence. In addition to a concise review of relevant recent progresses of entanglement entropy and details omitted in the earlier letter, this paper includes the following several new results: We give a more direct derivation of our claim which relates the entanglement entropy with the minimal area surfaces in the AdS3/CFT2 case as well as some further discussions on higher dimensional cases. Also the relation between the entanglement entropy and central charges in 4D conformal field theories is examined. We check that the logarithmic part of the 4D entanglement entropy computed in the CFT side agrees with the AdS5 result at least under a specific condition. Finally we estimate the entanglement entropy of massive theories in generic dimensions by making use of our proposal.

•May 6, 2006•1,097 citations
We present a new method of deriving shapes of entanglement wedges directly from conformal field theory (CFT) calculations. We point out that a reduced density matrix in holographic CFTs possesses a sharp wedge structure such that inside the wedge we can distinguish two local excitations, while outside we cannot. We can determine this wedge, which we call a CFT wedge, by computing a distinguishability measure. We find that CFT wedges defined by the fidelity or Bures distance as a distinguishability measure coincide perfectly with shadows of entanglement wedges in anti-de Sitter (AdS)/CFT. We confirm this agreement between CFT wedges and entanglement wedges for two-dimensional holographic CFTs where the subsystem is chosen to be an interval or double intervals, as well as higher-dimensional CFTs with a round ball subsystem. On the other hand, if we consider a free scalar CFT, we find that there are no sharp CFT wedges. This shows that sharp entanglement wedges emerge only for holographic CFTs owing to the large-N factorization. We also generalize our analysis to a time-dependent example and to a holographic boundary conformal field theory (AdS/BCFT). Finally, we study other distinguishability measures to define CFT wedges. We observe that some of the measures lead to CFT wedges which slightly deviate from the entanglement wedges in AdS/CFT, and we give a heuristic explanation for this. This paper is an extended version of our earlier letter (arXiv:1908.09939 [hep-th]) and includes various new observations and examples.
Abstract We present a new method of deriving shapes of entanglement wedges directly from conformal field theory (CFT) calculations. We point out that a reduced density matrix in holographic CFTs possesses a sharp wedge structure such that inside the wedge we can distinguish two local excitations, while outside we cannot. We can determine this wedge, which we call a CFT wedge, by computing a distinguishability measure. We find that CFT wedges defined by the fidelity or Bures distance as a distinguishability measure coincide perfectly with shadows of entanglement wedges in anti-de Sitter (AdS)/CFT. We confirm this agreement between CFT wedges and entanglement wedges for two-dimensional holographic CFTs where the subsystem is chosen to be an interval or double intervals, as well as higher-dimensional CFTs with a round ball subsystem. On the other hand, if we consider a free scalar CFT, we find that there are no sharp CFT wedges. This shows that sharp entanglement wedges emerge only for holographic CFTs owing to the large-NNN factorization. We also generalize our analysis to a time-dependent example and to a holographic boundary conformal field theory (AdS/BCFT). Finally, we study other distinguishability measures to define CFT wedges. We observe that some of the measures lead to CFT wedges which slightly deviate from the entanglement wedges in AdS/CFT, and we give a heuristic explanation for this. This paper is an extended version of our earlier letter (arXiv:1908.09939 [hep-th]) and includes various new observations and examples.
We present a new method of deriving the geometry of entanglement wedges in holography directly from conformal field theories (CFTs). We analyze an information metric called the Bures metric of reduced density matrices for locally excited states. This measures the distinguishability of states with different points excited. For a subsystem given by an interval, we precisely reproduce the expected entanglement wedge for two-dimensional holographic CFTs from the Bures metric, which turns out to be proportional to the anti-de Sitter metric on a time slice. On the other hand, for free scalar CFTs, we do not find any sharp structures like entanglement wedges. When a subsystem consists of two disconnected intervals, we manage to reproduce the expected entanglement wedge from holographic CFTs with the correct phase transitions, up to a very small error, from a quantity alternative to the Bures metric.
A holographic derivation of the entanglement entropy in quantum (conformal) field theories is proposed from anti-de Sitter/conformal field theory (AdS/CFT) correspondence. We argue that the entanglement entropy in d + 1 dimensional conformal field theories can be obtained from the area of d dimensional minimal surfaces in AdS(d+2), analogous to the Bekenstein-Hawking formula for black hole entropy. We show that our proposal agrees perfectly with the entanglement entropy in 2D CFT when applied to AdS(3). We also compare the entropy computed in AdS(5)XS(5) with that of the free N=4 super Yang-Mills theory.
We define a new information theoretic quantity called odd entanglement entropy (OEE) which enables us to compute the entanglement wedge cross section in holographic conformal field theories (CFTs). The entanglement wedge cross section has been introduced as a minimal cross section of the entanglement wedge, a natural generalization of the Ryu-Takayanagi surface. By using the replica trick, we explicitly compute the OEE for two-dimensional holographic CFT (three-dimensional anti-de Sitter space and planar Bañados-Teitelboim-Zanelli black hole) and see agreement with the entanglement wedge cross section. We conjecture this relation will hold in general dimensions.
This thesis is devoted to a possible generalization of the entanglement entropy and its implication to the holography, especially AdS/CFT correspondence.The AdS/CFT correspondence is a way to define the quantum gravity in d + 1-dimensional asymptotically anti-de Sitter (AdS) spacetime by using the conformal field theory (CFT) in d-dimension.In this context, it is still unclear how we can realize the d + 1-dimensional full bulk geometries from the d-dimensional quantum field theories.The main object of this thesis is the minimal surface not necessarily anchored on the boundary, which has not been derived from the field theory analysis.First, we review how we can obtain minimal surfaces anchored on the boundary from the entanglement entropy.Then, we introduce a generalization of the entanglement entropy for mixed states and discuss its basic properties.Finally, we argue that we can extract the aforementioned minimal surfaces ending on the bulk from the generalized version of the entanglement entropy.Our explicit derivations include the geometries in three-dimensional AdS and BTZ black holes.First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Norihiro Iizuka, my supervisor.I could not reach here without his patient guidance and encouragement.
This is an extended version of our short report hep-th/0603001, where a holographic interpretation of entanglement entropy in conformal field theories is proposed from AdS/CFT correspondence. In addition to a concise review of relevant recent progresses of entanglement entropy and details omitted in the earlier letter, this paper includes the following several new results: We give a more direct derivation of our claim which relates the entanglement entropy with the minimal area surfaces in the AdS3/CFT2 case as well as some further discussions on higher dimensional cases. Also the relation between the entanglement entropy and central charges in 4D conformal field theories is examined. We check that the logarithmic part of the 4D entanglement entropy computed in the CFT side agrees with the AdS5 result at least under a specific condition. Finally we estimate the entanglement entropy of massive theories in generic dimensions by making use of our proposal.