In statistical physics, if we divide successively an equilibrium system into two parts, we will face a situation that, to a certain length ξ, the physics of a subsystem is no longer the same as the original one. The extensive property of the thermal entropy S (A ∪ B) = S (A) + S (B) is then violated. This observation motivates us to introduce a concept of correlation entropy between two points, as measured by the mutual information in information theory, to study the critical phenomena. A rigorous relation is established to display some drastic features of the non-vanishing correlation entropy of a subsystem formed by any two distant particles with long-range correlation. This relation actually indicates a universal role played by the correlation entropy for understanding the critical phenomena. We also verify these analytical studies in terms of two well-studied models for both the thermal and quantum phase transitions: the two-dimensional Ising model and the one-dimensional transverse-field Ising model. Therefore, the correlation entropy provides us with a new physical intuition of the critical phenomena from the point of view of information theory.
In statistical physics, if we divide successively an equilibrium system into two parts, we will face a situation that, to a certain length ξ, the physics of a subsystem is no longer the same as the original one. The extensive property of the thermal entropy S (A ∪ B) = S (A) + S (B) is then violated. This observation motivates us to introduce a concept of correlation entropy between two points, as measured by the mutual information in information theory, to study the critical phenomena. A rigorous relation is established to display some drastic features of the non-vanishing correlation entropy of a subsystem formed by any two distant particles with long-range correlation. This relation actually indicates a universal role played by the correlation entropy for understanding the critical phenomena. We also verify these analytical studies in terms of two well-studied models for both the thermal and quantum phase transitions: the two-dimensional Ising model and the one-dimensional transverse-field Ising model. Therefore, the correlation entropy provides us with a new physical intuition of the critical phenomena from the point of view of information theory.
Entanglement, one of the most intriguing features of quantum theory and a main resource in quantum information science, is expected to play a crucial role also in the study of quantum phase transitions, where it is responsible for the appearance of long-range correlations. We investigate, through a microscopic calculation, the scaling properties of entanglement in spin chain systems, both near and at a quantum critical point. Our results establish a precise connection between concepts of quantum information, condensed matter physics, and quantum field theory, by showing that the behavior of critical entanglement in spin systems is analogous to that of entropy in conformal field theories. We explore some of the implications of this connection.
Critical phenomena, characterized by abrupt changes in macroscopic properties near phase transition points, exhibit universal scaling behavior independent of microscopic details. This paper explores the hypothesis that entropy serves as a fundamental universal scaling law governing these phenomena. We review the theoretical foundations of critical phenomena, including Landau theory and the renormalization group, highlighting the role of critical exponents and scaling functions. We then propose a framework where the configurational entropy, entanglement entropy, and other entropic measures exhibit universal scaling, linking them directly to the underlying critical exponents. Our methodology involves analyzing how entropy behaves under coarse-graining transformations near critical points, identifying a potential entropic fixed point in the renormalization group flow. We present theoretical arguments suggesting that the information content, as quantified by various entropy definitions, reflects the diverging correlation length and the emergent scale invariance at criticality. The discussion extends to how different entropic forms, such as Rényi and Tsallis entropies, might provide a more generalized framework for understanding critical behavior in complex and non-extensive systems. By demonstrating entropy's role as a universal scaling law, this work offers a unifying perspective on critical phenomena, deepening our understanding of phase transitions and the emergence of macroscopic order from microscopic fluctuations.
We carry out a systematic study of entanglement entropy in relativistic quantum field theory. This is defined as the von Neumann entropy S A = −Tr ρ A logρ A corresponding to the reduced density matrix ρ A of a subsystem A . For the case of a 1+1-dimensional critical system, whose continuum limit is a conformal field theory with central charge c , we re-derive the result of Holzhey et al when A is a finite interval of length in an infinite system, and extend it to many other cases: finite systems, finite temperatures, and when A consists of an arbitrary number of disjoint intervals. For such a system away from its critical point, when the correlation length ξ is large but finite, we show that , where is the number of boundary points of A . These results are verified for a free massive field theory, which is also used to confirm a scaling ansatz for the case of finite size off-critical systems, and for integrable lattice models, such as the Ising and XXZ models, which are solvable by corner transfer matrix methods. Finally the free field results are extended to higher dimensions, and used to motivate a scaling form for the singular part of the entanglement entropy near a quantum phase transition.
Entanglement is a fundamental feature of quantum mechanics and plays an important role in characterizing many-body systems and quantum phase transitions. A quantitative measure of quantum correlations between subsystems is entanglement entropy. In this thesis, we study the entanglement entropy of an interacting quantum field theory, the O(N) model. In local quantum field theories, the leading-order contribution in the scaling of entanglement entropy obeys an area law. This dominant term is governed by short-distance physics near the entangling surface and depends on the ultraviolet regularization, making it non-universal. Beyond this lead- ing scaling behavior, entanglement entropy can contain subleading universal contributions, which encode intrinsic information about the underlying quantum field theory. In this thesis, we calculate one such universal term: the correlation length coefficient r, which appears as a correction to the entanglement entropy evaluated slightly away from the quantum critical point. The analysis is carried out in D = 2 + 1 spacetime dimensions for an infinite cylindrical geometry. We study the model in the vicinity of criticality using the large-N expansion, which enables controlled analytical calculations. Our main result is that the coefficient r scales linearly with the number of field components N . This behavior is consistent with the interpretation of r as a universal quantity associated with the degrees of freedom of the theory. The calculation is based on the replica method and renormalization group arguments, which are presented in detail. Finally, we discuss the physical meaning of the result and possible methods for verifying it, and we review related results for the O(N) model in different geometries.
Critical phenomena, characterized by abrupt changes in the macroscopic properties of a system, exhibit a profound degree of universality, meaning that vastly different physical systems can display identical behavior near their critical points. This universality is typically understood through the lens of scaling laws and the Renormalization Group theory, which classify critical points into distinct universality classes. This paper proposes and explores the "Entropic Law of Critical Universality," an overarching principle positing that not only do thermodynamic quantities scale universally, but the fundamental information-theoretic measures of a system, particularly entropy in its various forms (thermodynamic entropy, entanglement entropy, Renyi entropy), also conform to universal scaling behaviors that uniquely characterize these universality classes. We review how entanglement entropy exhibits universal logarithmic corrections at quantum critical points, linked to the central charge of underlying conformal field theories. We also discuss how specific entropy behaves non-monotonically near quantum chromodynamics critical points and how entropic measures can identify phase transitions and their classes in various condensed matter systems, including graphene and spin models. The paper synthesizes theoretical frameworks and empirical evidence to demonstrate that entropy serves as a powerful and often more direct probe of the universal properties underlying critical phenomena, offering a comprehensive perspective on the shared information landscape of diverse critical systems.
This book provides an elementary introduction to the notions of continuum limit and universality in statistical systems with a large number of degrees of freedom. The existence of a continuum limit requires the appearance of correlations at large distance, a situation that is encountered in second order phase transitions, near the critical temperature. In this context, the book emphasizes the role of gaussian distributions and their relations with the mean field approximation and Landau′s theory of critical phenomena. The book shows that quasi-gaussian or mean-field approximations cannot describe correctly phase transitions in three space dimensions. The book assigns this difficulty to the coupling of very different physical length scales, even though the systems we will consider have only local, that is, short range, interactions. To analyze the unusual situation, a new concept is required: the renormalization group, whose fixed points allow understanding the universality of physical properties at large distance, beyond mean-field theory. In the continuum limit, critical phenomena can be described by quantum field theories. In this framework, the renormalization group is directly related to the renormalization process; that is, the necessity to cancel the infinities that arise in straightforward formulations of the theory. The book discusses the renormalization group in the context of various relevant field theories. This leads to proofs of universality and to efficient tools for calculating universal quantities in a perturbative framework. Finally, the book constructs a general functional renormalization group, which can be used when perturbative methods are inadequate.