Left-Right Entanglement Entropy of Dp-branes

We compute the left-right entanglement entropy for Dp-branes in string theory. We employ the CFT approach to string theory Dp-branes, in particular, its presentation as coherent states of the closed string sector. The entanglement entropy is computed as the von Neumann entropy for a density matrix resulting from integration over the left-moving degrees of freedom. We discuss various crucial ambiguities related to sums over spin structures and argue that different choices capture different physics; however, we advance a themodynamic argument that seems to favor a particular choice of replica. We also consider Dp branes on compact dimensions and verify that the effects of T-duality act covariantly on the Dp brane entanglement entropy. We find that generically the left-right entanglement entropy provides a suitable generalization of boundary entropy and of the D-brane tension.Comment: 20 pages, 3 figures. v2: A thermodynamic argument favoring a particular treatment of spin structures is advanced; one figure improved and references adde

Left-Right Entanglement Entropy of Boundary States

We study entanglement entropy of boundary states in a free bosonic conformal field theory. A boundary state can be thought of as composed of a particular combination of left and right-moving modes of the two-dimensional conformal field theory. We investigate the reduced density matrix obtained by tracing over the right-moving modes in various boundary states. We consider Dirichlet and Neumann boundary states of a free noncompact as well as a compact boson. The results for the entanglement entropy indicate that the reduced system can be viewed as a thermal CFT gas. Our findings are in agreement and generalize results in quantum mechanics and quantum field theory where coherent states can also be considered. In the compact case we verify that the entanglement entropy expressions are consistent with T-duality.Comment: 15 pages, no figures. v2 References added, typos fixe

Gravitational Collapse, Chaos in CFT Correlators and the Information Paradox

We consider gravitational collapse of a massless scalar field in asymptotically Anti de Sitter spacetime. Following the AdS/CFT dictionary we further study correlations in the field theory side by way of the Klein-Gordon equation of a probe scalar field in the collapsing background. We present evidence that in a certain regime the probe scalar field behaves chaotically, thus supporting Hawking's argument in the black hole information paradox proposing that although the information can be retrieved in principle, deterministic chaos impairs, in practice, the process of unitary extraction of information from a black hole. We emphasize that quantum chaos will change this picture.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

On Exactly Marginal Deformations Dual to BB-Field Moduli of IIB Theory on SE5_5

The complex dimension of the space of exactly marginal deformations for quiver CFTs dual to IIB theory compactified on $Y^{p,q}$ is known to be generically three. Simple general formulas already exist for two of the exactly marginal directions in the space of couplings, one of which corresponds to the sum of the (inverse squared of) gauge couplings, and the other to the $\beta$-deformation. Here we identify the third exactly marginal direction, which is dual to the modulus $\int B_{2}$ on the gravity side. This identification leads to a relation between the field theory gauge couplings and the vacuum expectation value of the gravity modulus that we further support by a computation related to the chiral anomaly induced by added fractional branes. We also present a simple algorithm for finding similar exactly marginal directions in any CFT described by brane tiling, and demonstrate it for the quiver CFTs dual to IIB theory compactified on $L^{1,5,2}$ and the Suspended Pinch Point.Comment: 28 pages, JHEP style. v2: minor corrections, added references and acknowledgements. v3: a number of speculative comments regarding the application of the Konishi anomaly equation to our problem are removed. v4: the proposal in Eq. (2.4) added back as a conjectur