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Entanglement Entropy and Higher Spin Holography in AdS3

Jan De Boer A, Juan I. Jottar

Published Apr 1, 2014• 91 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A holographic correspondence has been recently developed between higher spin theories in three-dimensional anti-de Sitter space (AdS3) and two-dimensional Conformal Field Theories (CFTs) with extended symmetries. A class of such dualities involves SL(N, R) × SL(N, R) Chern-Simons gauge theories in the (2 + 1)-dimensional bulk space-time, and CFTs with WN symmetry algebras on the (1 + 1)-dimensional boundary. The topological character of the bulk theory forces one to reconsider standard geometric notions such as black hole horizons and entropy, as well as the usual holographic dictionary. Motivated by this challenge, in this note we present a proposal to compute entanglement entropy in the WN CFTs via holographic methods. In particular, we introduce a functional constructed from Wilson lines in the bulk Chern-Simons theory that captures the entanglement entropy in the CFTs dual to standard AdS3 gravity, corresponding to SL(2, R) × SL(2, R) gauge group, and admits an immediate generalization to the higher spin case. We explicitly evaluate this functional for several known solutions of the bulk theory, including charged black holes dual to thermal CFT states carrying higher spin charge, and show that it reproduces expected features of entanglement entropy, study whether it obeys strong subadditivity, and moreover show that it reduces to the thermal entropy in the appropriate limit.

DOI
10.3929/ethz-b-000094415

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We explore interfaces and junctions joining multiple two-dimensional conformal field theories, with the goal of calculating entanglement entropies in their presence and exploring their holographic duals. In chapter 1 we start with an overview of the three subjects, collecting various well-known results and reviewing some foundational works.In chapter 2 we calculate the holographic entanglement entropy in the presence of a conformal interface for a geometric configuration in which the entangling region lies on one side of the interface. For the supersymmetric Janus solution we find exact agreement between the holographic and conformal field theory calculation of the entanglement entropy.In chapter 3 we calculate the entanglement entropy for topological interfaces in rational conformal field theories for the case where the interface lies at the boundary of the entangling interval and for the case where it is located in the center of the entangling interval. We compare the results to each other and also to the left/right entropy of a related boundary conformal field theory. We also comment on the entanglement entropies for topological interfaces in Liouville theory.In chapter 4 we consider entanglement through permeable junctions of N free boson and free fermion conformal field theories. We constrain the form of the general boundary state and calculate the replicated partition functions with interface operators inserted, from which the entanglement entropy is calculated. We find the functional form of the universal and constant terms to be similar to the N=2 case, depending only of the total transmission of the junction and the unit volume of the zero mode lattice. For N>2 we see a subleading divergent term which does not depend on the parameters of the junction. For N=3 we consider some specific geometries and discuss various limits.In chapter 5 we investigate topological interfaces between three-dimensional Abelian Chern-Simons theories in the context of the AdS_3/CFT_2 correspondence. We show that it is possible to connect the topological interfaces in the bulk Chern-Simons theory to topological interfaces in the dual conformal field theory on the boundary. In addition to the [U(1)]^{2N} Chern-Simons theory on AdS_3, we show that it is possible to find boundary counter terms which lead to the N conserved currents in the dual two-dimensional conformal field theory.

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A holographic correspondence has been recently developed between higher spin theories in three-dimensional anti-de Sitter space (AdS3) and two-dimensional Conformal Field Theories (CFTs) with extended symmetries. A class of such dualities involves SL(N, R) × SL(N, R) Chern-Simons gauge theories in the (2 + 1)-dimensional bulk space-time, and CFTs with WN symmetry algebras on the (1 + 1)-dimensional boundary. The topological character of the bulk theory forces one to reconsider standard geometric notions such as black hole horizons and entropy, as well as the usual holographic dictionary. Motivated by this challenge, in this note we present a proposal to compute entanglement entropy in the WN CFTs via holographic methods. In particular, we introduce a functional constructed from Wilson lines in the bulk Chern-Simons theory that captures the entanglement entropy in the CFTs dual to standard AdS3 gravity, corresponding to SL(2, R) × SL(2, R) gauge group, and admits an immediate generalization to the higher spin case. We explicitly evaluate this functional for several known solutions of the bulk theory, including charged black holes dual to thermal CFT states carrying higher spin charge, and show that it reproduces expected features of entanglement entropy, study whether it obeys strong subadditivity, and moreover show that it reduces to the thermal entropy in the appropriate limit.
Abstract We consider symmetry-resolved entanglement entropy in AdS3/CFT2coupled to U(1) Chern-Simons theory. We identify the holographic dual of the charged moments in the two-dimensional conformal field theory as a charged Wilson line in the bulk of AdS3, namely the Ryu-Takayanagi geodesic minimally coupled to the U(1) Chern-Simons gauge field. We identify the holonomy around the Wilson line as the Aharonov-Bohm phases which, in the two-dimensional field theory, are generated by charged U(1) vertex operators inserted at the endpoints of the entangling interval. Furthermore, we devise a new method to calculate the symmetry resolved entanglement entropy by relating the generating function for the charged moments to the amount of charge in the entangling subregion. We calculate the subregion charge from the U(1) Chern-Simons gauge field sourced by the bulk Wilson line. We use our method to derive the symmetry-resolved entanglement entropy for Poincaré patch and global AdS3, as well as for the conical defect geometries. In all three cases, the symmetry resolved entanglement entropy is determined by the length of the Ryu-Takayanagi geodesic and the Chern-Simons levelk, and fulfills equipartition of entanglement. The asymptotic symmetry algebra of the bulk theory is of u^(1)k \hat{\mathfrak{u}}{(1)}_k u^(1)k​ û1k Kac-Moody type. Employing the u^(1)k \hat{\mathfrak{u}}{(1)}_k u^(1)k​ û1k Kac-Moody symmetry, we confirm our holographic results by a calculation in the dual conformal field theory.
Higher spin entanglement and W N WN {\mathcal{W}}_{\mathrm{N}} WN​ conformal blocks
Two-dimensional conformal field theories with extended W \mathcal{W} W -symmetry algebras have dual descriptions in terms of weakly coupled higher spin gravity in AdS3 at large central charge. Observables that can be computed and compared in the two descriptions include Rényi and entanglement entropies, and correlation functions of local operators. We develop techniques for computing these, in a manner that sheds light on when and why one can expect agreement between such quantities on each side of the duality. We set up the computation of excited state Rényi entropies in the bulk in terms of Chern-Simons connections, and show how this directly parallels the CFT computation of correlation functions. More generally, we consider the vacuum conformal block for general operators with Δ ∼ c. When two of the operators obey Δc≪1 \frac{\varDelta }{c}\ll 1 cΔ​≪1 , we show by explicit computation that the vacuum conformal block is computed by a bulk Wilson line probing an asymptotically AdS3 background with higher spin fields excited, the latter emerging as the effective bulk description of the excited state produced by the heavy operators. Among other things, this puts a previous proposal for computing higher spin entanglement entropy via Wilson lines on firmer footing, and clarifies its relation to CFT. We also study the corresponding computation in Toda theory and find that this provides yet another independent way to arrive at the same result.
We consider free fermion and free boson CFTs in two dimensions, deformed by a chemical potential mu for the spin-three current. For the CFT on the infinite spatial line, we calculate the finite temperature entanglement entropy of a single interval perturbatively to second order in mu in each of the theories. We find that the result in each case is given by the same non-trivial function of temperature and interval length. Remarkably, we further obtain the same formula using a recent Wilson line proposal for the holographic entanglement entropy, in holomorphically factorized form, associated to the spin-three black hole in SL(3, R) x SL(3, R) Chern-Simons theory. Our result suggests that the order mu(2) correction to the entanglement entropy may be universal for W-algebra CFTs with spin-three chemical potential, and constitutes a check of the holographic entanglement entropy proposal for higher spin theories of gravity in AdS(3).
We consider free fermion and free boson CFTs in two dimensions, deformed by a chemical potential μ for the spin-three current. For the CFT on the infinite spatial line, we calculate the finite temperature entanglement entropy of a single interval perturbatively to second order in μ in each of the theories. We find that the result in each case is given by the same non-trivial function of temperature and interval length. Remarkably, we further obtain the same formula using a recent Wilson line proposal for the holographic entanglement entropy, in holomorphically factorized form, associated to the spin-three black hole in SL(3, ℝ) × SL(3, ℝ) Chern-Simons theory. Our result suggests that the order μ 2 correction to the entanglement entropy may be universal for $ \mathcal{W} $ -algebra CFTs with spinthree chemical potential, and constitutes a check of the holographic entanglement entropy proposal for higher spin theories of gravity in AdS3.
We present a detailed discussion of entanglement entropy in (1+1)-dimensional Warped Conformal Field Theories (WCFTs). We implement the Rindler method to evaluate entanglement and Renyi entropies for a single interval and along the way we interpret our results in terms of twist field correlation functions. Holographically a WCFT can be described in terms of Lower Spin Gravity, a SL (2, ℝ) × U (1) Chern-Simons theory in three dimensions. We show how to obtain the universal field theory results for entanglement in a WCFT via holography. For the geometrical description of the theory we introduce the concept of geodesic and massive point particles in the warped geometry associated to Lower Spin Gravity. In the Chern-Simons description we evaluate the appropriate Wilson line that captures the dynamics of a massive particle.
We explore interfaces and junctions joining multiple two-dimensional conformal field theories, with the goal of calculating entanglement entropies in their presence and exploring their holographic duals. In chapter 1 we start with an overview of the three subjects, collecting various well-known results and reviewing some foundational works.In chapter 2 we calculate the holographic entanglement entropy in the presence of a conformal interface for a geometric configuration in which the entangling region lies on one side of the interface. For the supersymmetric Janus solution we find exact agreement between the holographic and conformal field theory calculation of the entanglement entropy.In chapter 3 we calculate the entanglement entropy for topological interfaces in rational conformal field theories for the case where the interface lies at the boundary of the entangling interval and for the case where it is located in the center of the entangling interval. We compare the results to each other and also to the left/right entropy of a related boundary conformal field theory. We also comment on the entanglement entropies for topological interfaces in Liouville theory.In chapter 4 we consider entanglement through permeable junctions of N free boson and free fermion conformal field theories. We constrain the form of the general boundary state and calculate the replicated partition functions with interface operators inserted, from which the entanglement entropy is calculated. We find the functional form of the universal and constant terms to be similar to the N=2 case, depending only of the total transmission of the junction and the unit volume of the zero mode lattice. For N>2 we see a subleading divergent term which does not depend on the parameters of the junction. For N=3 we consider some specific geometries and discuss various limits.In chapter 5 we investigate topological interfaces between three-dimensional Abelian Chern-Simons theories in the context of the AdS_3/CFT_2 correspondence. We show that it is possible to connect the topological interfaces in the bulk Chern-Simons theory to topological interfaces in the dual conformal field theory on the boundary. In addition to the [U(1)]^{2N} Chern-Simons theory on AdS_3, we show that it is possible to find boundary counter terms which lead to the N conserved currents in the dual two-dimensional conformal field theory.