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Renyi Entropies for Free Field Theories

Igor R. Klebanov, Silviu S. Pufu, Subir Sachdev A, Benjamin R. Safdi

Published Jan 1, 2012• 71 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

Rényi entropies Sq are useful measures of quantum entanglement; they can be calculated from traces of the reduced density matrix raised to power q, with q ≥ 0. For (d + 1)-dimensional conformal field theories, the Rényi entropies across Sd−1 may be extracted from the thermal partition functions of these theories on either (d+1)-dimensional de Sitter space or R×Hd, where Hd is the d-dimensional hyperbolic space. These thermal partition functions can in turn be expressed as path integrals on branched coverings of the (d+ 1)-dimensional sphere and S1 × Hd, respectively. We calculate the Rényi entropies of free massless scalars and fermions in d = 2, and show how using zeta-function regularization one finds agreement between the calculations on the branched coverings of S3 and on S1 × H2. Analogous calculations for massive free fields provide monotonic interpolating functions between the Rényi entropies at the Gaussian and the trivial fixed points. Finally, we discuss similar Rényi entropy calculations in d> 2.

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Rényi entropies Sq are useful measures of quantum entanglement; they can be calculated from traces of the reduced density matrix raised to power q, with q ≥ 0. For (d + 1)-dimensional conformal field theories, the Rényi entropies across Sd−1 may be extracted from the thermal partition functions of these theories on either (d+1)-dimensional de Sitter space or R×Hd, where Hd is the d-dimensional hyperbolic space. These thermal partition functions can in turn be expressed as path integrals on branched coverings of the (d+ 1)-dimensional sphere and S1 × Hd, respectively. We calculate the Rényi entropies of free massless scalars and fermions in d = 2, and show how using zeta-function regularization one finds agreement between the calculations on the branched coverings of S3 and on S1 × H2. Analogous calculations for massive free fields provide monotonic interpolating functions between the Rényi entropies at the Gaussian and the trivial fixed points. Finally, we discuss similar Rényi entropy calculations in d> 2.
We describe a holographic approach to explicitly computing the universal logarithmic contributions to entanglement and Rényi entropies for free conformal scalar and spinor fields on even-dimensional spheres. This holographic derivation proceeds in two steps: first, following Casini and Huerta, a conformal mapping to thermal entropy in a hyperbolic geometry; then identification of the hyperbolic geometry with the conformal boundary of a bulk hyperbolic space and use of an AdS/CFT holographic formula to compute the resultant functional determinant. We explicitly verify the connection with the type-A trace anomaly for the entanglement entropy, whereas the Rényi entropy is computed with the aid of the Sommerfeld formula in order to deal with a conical defect. We show that as a by-product, the log coefficient of the Rényi entropy for round spheres can be efficiently obtained as the q-analog of a procedure similar to the one found by Cappelli and D’Appollonio that rendered the type-A trace anomaly.
We calculate thermal corrections to Rényi entropies for free massless fermions on a sphere. More specifically, we take a free fermion on R×Sd−1 \mathbb{R}\times {\mathbb{S}}^{{{}^d}^{-1}} R×Sd−1 and calculate the leading thermal correction to the Rényi entropies for a cap like region with opening angle 2θ. By expanding the density matrix in a Boltzmann sum, the problem of finding the Rényi entropies can be mapped to the problem of calculating a two point function on an n sheeted cover of the sphere. We follow previous work for conformal field theories to map the problem on the sphere to a conical region in Euclidean space. By using the method of images, we calculate the two point function and recover the Rényi entropies.
We compute thermal corrections to Rényi entropies of d dimensional conformal field theories on spheres. Consider the nth Rényi entropy for a cap of opening angle 2θ on S d−1. From a Boltzmann sum decomposition and the operator-state correspondence, the leading correction is related to a certain two-point correlation function of the operator (not equal to the identity) with smallest scaling dimension. More specifically, via a conformal map, the correction can be expressed in terms of the two-point function on a certain conical space with opening angle 2πn. In the case of free conformal field theories, this two-point function can be computed explicitly using the method of images. We perform the computation for the conformally coupled scalar. From the n → 1 limit of our results, we extract the leading thermal correction to the entanglement entropy, reproducing results of arXiv:1407.1358.
Entanglement entropy in even-dimensional conformal field theories (CFTs) contains well-known universal terms arising from the conformal anomaly. R\'enyi entropies are natural generalizations of the entanglement entropy that are much less understood. Above two spacetime dimensions, the universal terms in the R\'enyi entropies are unknown for general entangling geometries. We conjecture a new structure in the dependence of the four-dimensional R\'enyi entropies on the intrinsic and extrinsic geometry of the entangling surface. We provide evidence for this conjecture by direct numerical computations in the free scalar and fermion field theories. The computation involves relating the four-dimensional free massless R\'enyi entropies across cylindrical entangling surfaces to corresponding three-dimensional massive R\'enyi entropies across circular entangling surfaces. Our numerical technique also allows us to directly probe other interesting aspects of three-dimensional R\'enyi entropy, including the massless renormalized R\'enyi entropy and calculable contributions to the perimeter law.
We present a new type of generalization of the Rényi entropy that follows naturally from its representation as a thermodynamic quantity. We apply it to the case of [Formula: see text]-dimensional conformal field theories (CFTs) reduced on a region bounded by a sphere. It is known how to compute their Rényi entropy as an integral of the thermal entropy of hyperbolic black holes in [Formula: see text]-dimensional anti-de Sitter spacetime. We show how this integral fits into the framework of extended gravitational thermodynamics, and then point out the natural generalization of the Rényi entropy that suggests itself in that light. In the field theory terms, the new generalization employs aspects of the physics of Renormalization Group (RG) flow to define a refined version of the reduced vacuum density matrix. For [Formula: see text], it can be derived directly in terms of twist operators in field theory. The framework presented here may have applications beyond this context, perhaps in studies of both quantum and classical information theoretic properties of a variety of systems.
We extend previous work on the perturbative expansion of the Rényi entropy, S q , around q = 1 for a spherical entangling surface in a general CFT. Applied to conformal scalar fields in various spacetime dimensions, the results appear to conflict with the known conformal scalar Rényi entropies. On the other hand, the perturbative results agree with known Rényi entropies in a variety of other theories, including theories of free fermions and vector fields and theories with Einstein gravity duals. We propose a resolution stemming from a careful consideration of boundary conditions near the entangling surface. This is equivalent to a proper treatment of total-derivative terms in the definition of the modular Hamiltonian. As a corollary, we are able to resolve an outstanding puzzle in the literature regarding the Rényi entropy of N=4 \mathcal{N}=4 N=4 super-Yang-Mills near q = 1. A related puzzle regards the question of stationarity of the renormalized entanglement entropy (REE) across a circle for a (2+1)-dimensional massive scalar field. We point out that the boundary contributions to the modular Hamiltonian shed light on the previously-observed non-stationarity. Moreover, IR divergences appear in perturbation theory about the massless fixed point that inhibit our ability to reliably calculate the REE at small non-zero mass.