5 research outputs found
Topological Entanglement Entropy from the Holographic Partition Function
We study the entropy of chiral 2+1-dimensional topological phases, where
there are both gapped bulk excitations and gapless edge modes. We show how the
entanglement entropy of both types of excitations can be encoded in a single
partition function. This partition function is holographic because it can be
expressed entirely in terms of the conformal field theory describing the edge
modes. We give a general expression for the holographic partition function, and
discuss several examples in depth, including abelian and non-abelian fractional
quantum Hall states, and p+ip superconductors. We extend these results to
include a point contact allowing tunneling between two points on the edge,
which causes thermodynamic entropy associated with the point contact to be lost
with decreasing temperature. Such a perturbation effectively breaks the system
in two, and we can identify the thermodynamic entropy loss with the loss of the
edge entanglement entropy. From these results, we obtain a simple
interpretation of the non-integer `ground state degeneracy' which is obtained
in 1+1-dimensional quantum impurity problems: its logarithm is a
2+1-dimensional topological entanglement entropy.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figure
Analytic results on the geometric entropy for free fields
The trace of integer powers of the local density matrix corresponding to the
vacuum state reduced to a region V can be formally expressed in terms of a
functional integral on a manifold with conical singularities. Recently, some
progress has been made in explicitly evaluating this type of integrals for free
fields. However, finding the associated geometric entropy remained in general a
difficult task involving an analytic continuation in the conical angle. In this
paper, we obtain this analytic continuation explicitly exploiting a relation
between the functional integral formulas and the Chung-Peschel expressions for
the density matrix in terms of correlators. The result is that the entropy is
given in terms of a functional integral in flat Euclidean space with a cut on V
where a specific boundary condition is imposed. As an example we get the exact
entanglement entropies for massive scalar and Dirac free fields in 1+1
dimensions in terms of the solutions of a non linear differential equation of
the Painleve V type.Comment: 7 pages, minor change
Non-zero temperature transport near quantum critical points
We describe the nature of charge transport at non-zero temperatures ()
above the two-dimensional () superfluid-insulator quantum critical point. We
argue that the transport is characterized by inelastic collisions among
thermally excited carriers at a rate of order . This implies that
the transport at frequencies is in the hydrodynamic,
collision-dominated (or `incoherent') regime, while is
the collisionless (or `phase-coherent') regime. The conductivity is argued to
be times a non-trivial universal scaling function of , and not independent of , as has been previously
claimed, or implicitly assumed. The experimentally measured d.c. conductivity
is the hydrodynamic limit of this function, and is a
universal number times , even though the transport is incoherent.
Previous work determined the conductivity by incorrectly assuming it was also
equal to the collisionless limit of the scaling
function, which actually describes phase-coherent transport with a conductivity
given by a different universal number times . We provide the first
computation of the universal d.c. conductivity in a disorder-free boson model,
along with explicit crossover functions, using a quantum Boltzmann equation and
an expansion in . The case of spin transport near quantum
critical points in antiferromagnets is also discussed. Similar ideas should
apply to the transitions in quantum Hall systems and to metal-insulator
transitions. We suggest experimental tests of our picture and speculate on a
new route to self-duality at two-dimensional quantum critical points.Comment: Feedback incorporated into numerous clarifying remarks; additional
appendix discusses relationship to transport in dissipative quantum mechanics
and quantum Hall edge state tunnelling problems, stimulated by discussions
with E. Fradki
Quantum Impurity Entanglement
Entanglement in J_1-J_2, S=1/2 quantum spin chains with an impurity is
studied using analytic methods as well as large scale numerical density matrix
renormalization group methods. The entanglement is investigated in terms of the
von Neumann entropy, S=-Tr rho_A log rho_A, for a sub-system A of size r of the
chain. The impurity contribution to the uniform part of the entanglement
entropy, S_{imp}, is defined and analyzed in detail in both the gapless, J_2 <=
J_2^c, as well as the dimerized phase, J_2>J_2^c, of the model. This quantum
impurity model is in the universality class of the single channel Kondo model
and it is shown that in a quite universal way the presence of the impurity in
the gapless phase, J_2 <= J_2^c, gives rise to a large length scale, xi_K,
associated with the screening of the impurity, the size of the Kondo screening
cloud. The universality of Kondo physics then implies scaling of the form
S_{imp}(r/xi_K,r/R) for a system of size R. Numerical results are presented
clearly demonstrating this scaling. At the critical point, J_2^c, an analytic
Fermi liquid picture is developed and analytic results are obtained both at T=0
and T>0. In the dimerized phase an appealing picure of the entanglement is
developed in terms of a thin soliton (TS) ansatz and the notions of impurity
valence bonds (IVB) and single particle entanglement (SPE) are introduced. The
TS-ansatz permits a variational calculation of the complete entanglement in the
dimerized phase that appears to be exact in the thermodynamic limit at the
Majumdar-Ghosh point, J_2=J_1/2, and surprisingly precise even close to the
critical point J_2^c. In appendices the relation between the finite temperature
entanglement entropy, S(T), and the thermal entropy, S_{th}(T), is discussed
and and calculated at the MG-point using the TS-ansatz.Comment: 62 pages, 27 figures, JSTAT macro