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arXiv:math-ph/0507022 · Journal of Mathematical Physics

On the sharpness of the zero-entropy-density conjecture

S. Farkas, Zoltán Zimborás

Published Dec 1, 2005• 16 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The zero-entropy-density conjecture states that the entropy density defined as s≔limN→∞SN∕N vanishes for all translation-invariant pure states on the spin chain. Or equivalently, SN, the von Neumann entropy of such a state restricted to N consecutive spins, is sublinear. In this paper it is proved that this conjecture cannot be sharpened, i.e., translation-invariant states give rise to arbitrary fast sublinear entropy growth. The proof is constructive, and is based on a class of states derived from quasifree states on a CAR algebra. The question whether the entropy growth of pure quasifree states can be arbitrary fast sublinear was first raised by Fannes et al. [J. Math. Phys. 44, 6005 (2003)]. In addition to the main theorem it is also shown that the entropy asymptotics of all pure shift-invariant nontrivial quasifree states is at least logarithmic.

DOI
10.1063/1.2138047

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The zero-entropy-density conjecture states that the entropy density defined as s≔limN→∞SN∕N vanishes for all translation-invariant pure states on the spin chain. Or equivalently, SN, the von Neumann entropy of such a state restricted to N consecutive spins, is sublinear. In this paper it is proved that this conjecture cannot be sharpened, i.e., translation-invariant states give rise to arbitrary fast sublinear entropy growth. The proof is constructive, and is based on a class of states derived from quasifree states on a CAR algebra. The question whether the entropy growth of pure quasifree states can be arbitrary fast sublinear was first raised by Fannes et al. [J. Math. Phys. 44, 6005 (2003)]. In addition to the main theorem it is also shown that the entropy asymptotics of all pure shift-invariant nontrivial quasifree states is at least logarithmic.
The zero-entropy-density conjecture states that the entropy density defined as s≔limN→ ∞ S N/N vanishes for all translation-invariant pure states on the spin chain. Or equivalently, S N, the von Neumann entropy of such a state restricted to N consecutive spins, is sublinear. In this paper it is proved that this conjecture cannot be sharpened, i.e., translation-invariant states give rise to arbitrary fast sublinear entropy growth. The proof is constructive, and is based on a class of states derived from quasifree states on a CAR algebra. The question whether the entropy growth of pure quasifree states can be arbitrary fast sublinear was first raised by Fannes et al. [J. Math Phys. 44, 6005 (2003)]. In addition to the main theorem it is also shown that the entropy asymptotics of all pure shift-invariant nontrivial quasifree states is at least logarithmic. I.
We study the entropy of pure shift-invariant states on a quantum spin chain. Unlike the classical case, the local restrictions to intervals of length N are typically mixed and have therefore a nonzero entropy SN which is, moreover, monotonically increasing in N. We are interested in the asymptotics of the total entropy. We investigate in detail a class of states derived from quasi-free states on a CAR algebra. These are characterized by a measurable subset of the unit interval. As the entropy density is known to vanish, SN is sublinear in N. For states corresponding to unions of finitely many intervals, SN is shown to grow slower than log2 N. Numerical calculations suggest a log N behavior. For the case with infinitely many intervals, we present a class of states for which the entropy SN increases as Nα where α can take any value in (0,1).
We construct translation-invariant pure quasifree fermionic states on the one-dimensional lattice whose half-chain von Neumann algebras are hyperfinite factors of type II∞\mathrm{II}_\inftyII∞​ or IIIλ\mathrm{III}_λIIIλ​ for any 0<λ≤10<λ\leq 10<λ≤1. Via the Jordan-Wigner-Araki transformation, these yield translation-invariant pure spin-chain states with the same half-chain factors, demonstrating that such factors need not be of type I or III. Each state is the unique ground state of a gapless, translation-invariant parent Hamiltonian with superpolynomially decaying interactions. For any fixed factor type, the interval entanglement entropy can exhibit widely varying growth rates, from arbitrarily slow divergence to nearly power-law growth, showing that entropy scaling does not determine the factor type. In contrast, we prove that gauge-invariant quadratic Hamiltonians with finitely many flavours and exponentially decaying hopping exhibit a dichotomy: their ground states either satisfy an area law with a type I half-chain factor, or have logarithmic entropy growth with a type III1\mathrm{III}_1III1​ factor. The counterexample was discovered with AI assistance.
We study the von Neumann entropy asymptotics of pure translation-invariant quasifree states of d-dimensional fermionic systems. It is shown that the entropic area law is violated by all these states: apart from the trivial cases, the entropy of a cubic subsystem with edge length L cannot grow slower than Ld−1lnL. As for the upper bound of the entropy asymptotics, the zero-entropy-density property of these pure states is the only limit: it is proven that arbitrary fast sub-Ld entropy growth is achievable.
For the general class of quasifree fermionic right mover/left mover systems over the infinitely extended two-sided discrete line introduced in Aschbacher [Rev. Math. Phys. 35, 2330001 (2023)] within the algebraic framework of quantum statistical mechanics, we study the von Neumann entropy of a contiguous subsystem of finite length in interaction with its environment. In particular, under the assumption of spatial translation invariance, we analyze the asymptotic behavior of the von Neumann entropy for large subsystem lengths and prove that its leading order density is, in general, nonvanishing and displays the signature of a mixture of the independent thermal species underlying the right mover/left mover system. As special cases, the formalism covers so-called nonequilibrium steady states, thermal equilibrium states, and ground states. Moreover, for general Fermi functions, we derive a necessary and sufficient criterion for the von Neumann entropy density to vanish.
Quantum many-body states that frequently appear in physics often obey an entropy scaling law, meaning that an entanglement entropy of a subsystem can be expressed as a sum of terms that scale linearly with its volume and area, plus a correction term that is independent of its size.We conjecture that these states have an efficient dual description in terms of a set of marginal density matrices on bounded regions, obeying the same entropy scaling law locally.We prove a restricted version of this conjecture for translationally invariant systems in two spatial dimensions.Specifically, we prove that a translationally invariant marginal obeying three nonlinear constraints-all of which follow from the entropy scaling law straightforwardlymust be consistent with some global state on an infinite lattice.Moreover, we derive a closed-form expression for the maximum-entropy density compatible with those marginals, deriving a variational upper bound on the thermodynamic free energy.The main assumptions of our construction are satisfied exactly by solvable models of topological order and approximately by finite-temperature Gibbs states of certain quantum spin Hamiltonians.