Generalized Gravitational Entropy from Total Derivative Action

We investigate the generalized gravitational entropy from total derivative terms in the gravitational action. Following the method of Lewkowycz and Maldacena, we find that the generalized gravitational entropy from total derivatives vanishes. We compare our results with the work of Astaneh, Patrushev, and Solodukhin. We find that if total derivatives produced nonzero entropy, the holographic and the field-theoretic universal terms of entanglement entropy would not match. Furthermore, the second law of thermodynamics could be violated if the entropy of total derivatives did not vanish.Comment: 24 pages; v2: added references, Sec. 5.2 for corner entanglement, a toy model in Sec. 5.3, and minor corrections; v3: added one reference, published versio

Holographic RG flows with nematic IR phases

We construct zero-temperature geometries that interpolate between a Lifshitz fixed point in the UV and an IR phase that breaks spatial rotations but preserves translations. We work with a simple holographic model describing two massive gauge fields coupled to gravity and a neutral scalar. Our construction can be used to describe RG flows in non-relativistic, strongly coupled quantum systems with nematic order in the IR. In particular, when the dynamical critical exponent of the UV fixed point is z=2 and the IR scaling exponents are chosen appropriately, our model realizes holographically the scaling properties of the bosonic modes of the quadratic band crossing model.Comment: 19 pages, 2 figures. References added. Expanded discussion on nematic orde