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Physical review. D/Physical review. D.

Rényi entropies in the n→0 limit and entanglement temperatures

César A. Agón, Horacio Casini, Pedro J. Martínez

Published Nov 16, 2023• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Entanglement temperatures (ET) are a generalization of Unruh temperatures valid for states reduced to any region of space. They encode in a thermal fashion the high-energy behavior of the state around a point. These temperatures are determined by an eikonal equation in Euclidean space. We show that the real-time continuation of these equations implies ballistic propagation. For theories with a free UV fixed point, the ET determines the state at a large modular temperature. In particular, we show that the $n\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0$ limit of R\'enyi entropies ${S}_{n}$ can be computed from the ET. This establishes a formula for these R\'enyi entropies for any region in terms of solutions of the eikonal equations. In the $n\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0$ limit, the relevant high-temperature state propagation is determined by a free relativistic Boltzmann equation, with an infinite tower of conserved currents. For the special case of states and regions with a conformal Killing symmetry, these equations coincide with the ones of a perfect fluid.

DOI
10.1103/physrevd.108.105009

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Entanglement temperatures (ET) are a generalization of Unruh temperatures valid for states reduced to any region of space. They encode in a thermal fashion the high-energy behavior of the state around a point. These temperatures are determined by an eikonal equation in Euclidean space. We show that the real-time continuation of these equations implies ballistic propagation. For theories with a free UV fixed point, the ET determines the state at a large modular temperature. In particular, we show that the n\ensuremath→0n\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0n\ensuremath→0 limit of R'enyi entropies Sn{S}_{n}Sn​ can be computed from the ET. This establishes a formula for these R'enyi entropies for any region in terms of solutions of the eikonal equations. In the n\ensuremath→0n\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0n\ensuremath→0 limit, the relevant high-temperature state propagation is determined by a free relativistic Boltzmann equation, with an infinite tower of conserved currents. For the special case of states and regions with a conformal Killing symmetry, these equations coincide with the ones of a perfect fluid.
Rényi entropies in the n→0n\to0n→0 limit and entanglement temperatures
Entanglement temperatures (ET) are a generalization of Unruh temperatures valid for states reduced to any region of space. They encode in a thermal fashion the high energy behavior of the state around a point. These temperatures are determined by an eikonal equation in Euclidean space. We show that the real-time continuation of these equations implies ballistic propagation. For theories with a free UV fixed point, the ET determines the state at a large modular temperature. In particular, we show that the n→0n \to 0n→0 limit of Rényi entropies SnS_nSn​, can be computed from the ET. This establishes a formula for these Rényi entropies for any region in terms of solutions of the eikonal equations. In the n→0n\to 0n→0 limit, the relevant high-temperature state propagation is determined by a free relativistic Boltzmann equation, with an infinite tower of conserved currents. For the special case of states and regions with a conformal Killing symmetry, these equations coincide with the ones of a perfect fluid.
We use the thermal effective theory to prove that, for the vacuum state in any conformal field theory in d dimensions, the nth Rényi entropy S_{A}^{(n)} behaves as S_{A}^{(n)}=[f/(2πn)^{d-1}][Area(∂A)/(d-2)ε^{d-2}](1+O(n)) in the n→0 limit when the boundary of the entanglement domain A is spherical with the UV cutoff ε. The theory dependence is encapsulated in the cosmological constant f in the thermal effective action. Using this result, we estimate the density of states for large eigenvalues of the modular Hamiltonian for the domain A. In two dimensions, we can use the hot spot idea, which describes the effective action in the high-temperature limit when the temperature is position-dependent, to derive more powerful formulas valid for arbitrary positive n. We discuss the difference between two and higher dimensions and clarify the applicability of the hot spot idea. We also use the thermal effective theory to derive an analog of the Cardy formula for boundary operators in higher dimensions.
The relative entropy between very high-energy localized excitations and the vacuum, where both states are reduced to a spatial region, gives place to a precise definition of a local temperature produced by vacuum entanglement across the boundary. This generalizes the Unruh temperature of the Rindler wedge to arbitrary regions. The local temperatures can be read off from the short distance leading have a universal geometric expression that follows by solving a particular eikonal type equation in Euclidean space. This equation generalizes to any dimension the holomorphic property that holds in two dimensions. For regions of arbitrary shapes the local temperatures at a point are direction dependent. We compute their explicit expression for the geometry of a wall or strip.
In this paper, we propose a novel expansion to compute the large interval limit of the R\'enyi entropy of 2D conformal field theory (CFT) at high temperature. Via the replica trick, the single interval R\'enyi entropy of 2D CFT at finite temperature could be read from the partition function on nnn-sheeted torus connected with each other along a branch cut. We calculate the partition function by inserting a complete basis across the branch cut. Because of the monodromy condition across the branch cut in the large interval limit, the basis of the states should be the ones in the twist sector. We study the twist sector of a general module of CFT and find that there is a one-to-one correspondence between the twist sector states and the normal sector states. As an application, we revisit the noncompact free scalar theory and discuss the large interval limit of the R\'enyi entropy of this theory by using our proposal. We find complete agreement in the leading and next-leading orders with direct expansion of the exact partition function. Moreover, we prove the relation (10) between thermal entropy and the entanglement entropy for a generic CFT with discrete spectrum.
Ryu and Takayanagi conjectured a formula for the entanglement (von Neumann) entropy of an arbitrary spatial region in an arbitrary holographic field theory. The von Neumann entropy is a special case of a more general class of entropies called R\'enyi entropies. Using Euclidean gravity, Fursaev computed the entanglement R\'enyi entropies (EREs) of an arbitrary spatial region in an arbitrary holographic field theory, and thereby derived the RT formula. We point out, however, that his EREs are incorrect, since his putative saddle points do not in fact solve the Einstein equation. We remedy this situation in the case of two-dimensional conformal field theories (CFTs), considering regions consisting of one or two intervals. For a single interval, the EREs are known for a general CFT; we reproduce them using gravity. For two intervals, the RT formula predicts a phase transition in the entanglement entropy as a function of their separation, and that the mutual information between the intervals vanishes for separations larger than the phase transition point. By computing EREs using gravity and CFT techniques, we find evidence supporting both predictions. We also find evidence that large NNN symmetric product theories have the same EREs as holographic ones.
The leading asymptotic large-scale behavior of the spatially bipartite entanglement entropy (EE) of the free Fermi gas infinitely extended in multidimensionsal Euclidean space at zero absolute temperature, T=0, is by now well understood. Here, we announce and discuss the first rigorous results for the corresponding EE of thermal equilibrium states at T>0. The leading large-scale term of this thermal EE turns out to be twice the leading finite-size correction to the infinite-volume thermal entropy (density). Not surprisingly, this correction is just the thermal entropy on the boundary surface of the bipartition. However, it is given by a rather complicated analytical expression derived from semiclassical functional calculus and differs, at least at high temperature, from simpler expressions previously obtained by arguments based on conformal field theory. In the zero-temperature limit, the leading large-scale term of the thermal EE considerably simplifies and displays a ln(1/T)-singularity which one may identify with the known logarithmic correction at T=0 to the so-called area-law scaling. Our results extend to the whole one-parameter family of (quantum) R\'enyi entropies.