c-theorem of the entanglement entropy

We holographically investigate the renormalization group flow in a two-dimensional conformal field theory deformed by a relevant operator. If the relevant operator allows another fixed point, the UV conformal field theory smoothly flows to a new IR conformal field theory. From the holographic point of view, such a renormalization group flow can be realized as a dual geometry interpolating two different AdS boundaries. On this interpolating geometry, we investigate how the c-function of the entanglement entropy behaves along the RG flow analyt- ically and numerically, which reproduces the expected central charges of UV and IR. We also show that the c-function monotonically decreases from UV to IR without any phase transition.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figure

Mutual information and the F-theorem

Mutual information is used as a purely geometrical regularization of entanglement entropy applicable to any QFT. A coefficient in the mutual information between concentric circular entangling surfaces gives a precise universal prescription for the monotonous quantity in the c-theorem for d=3. This is in principle computable using any regularization for the entropy, and in particular is a definition suitable for lattice models. We rederive the proof of the c-theorem for d=3 in terms of mutual information, and check our arguments with holographic entanglement entropy, a free scalar field, and an extensive mutual information model.Comment: 80 pages, 16 figure

Holographic c-theorems in arbitrary dimensions

We re-examine holographic versions of the c-theorem and entanglement entropy in the context of higher curvature gravity and the AdS/CFT correspondence. We select the gravity theories by tuning the gravitational couplings to eliminate non-unitary operators in the boundary theory and demonstrate that all of these theories obey a holographic c-theorem. In cases where the dual CFT is even-dimensional, we show that the quantity that flows is the central charge associated with the A-type trace anomaly. Here, unlike in conventional holographic constructions with Einstein gravity, we are able to distinguish this quantity from other central charges or the leading coefficient in the entropy density of a thermal bath. In general, we are also able to identify this quantity with the coefficient of a universal contribution to the entanglement entropy in a particular construction. Our results suggest that these coefficients appearing in entanglement entropy play the role of central charges in odd-dimensional CFT's. We conjecture a new c-theorem on the space of odd-dimensional field theories, which extends Cardy's proposal for even dimensions. Beyond holography, we were able to show that for any even-dimensional CFT, the universal coefficient appearing the entanglement entropy which we calculate is precisely the A-type central charge.Comment: 62 pages, 4 figures, few typo's correcte

Thermodynamical property of entanglement entropy and deconfinement phase transition

We analyze the holographic entanglement entropy in a soliton background with Wilson lines and derive a relation analogous to the first law of thermodynamics. The confinement/deconfinement phase transition occurs due to the competition of two minimal surfaces. The entropic c function probes the confinement/deconfinement phase transition. It is sensitive to the degrees of freedom (DOF) smaller than the size of a spatial circle. When the Wilson line becomes large, the entropic c function becomes non-monotonic as a function of the size and does not satisfy the usual c-theorem. We analyze the entanglement entropy for a small subregion and the relation analogous to the first law of thermodynamics. For the small amount of Wilson lines, the excited amount of the entanglement entropy decreases from the ground state. It reflects that confinement decreases degrees of freedom. We finally discuss the second order correction of the holographic entanglement entropy.Comment: 25 pages, 5 figures; v2 minor changes, references adde

A finite entanglement entropy and the c-theorem

The trace over the degrees of freedom located in a subset of the space transforms the vacuum state into a mixed density matrix with non zero entropy. This is usually called entanglement entropy, and it is known to be divergent in quantum field theory (QFT). However, it is possible to define a finite quantity F(A,B) for two given different subsets A and B which measures the degree of entanglement between their respective degrees of freedom. We show that the function F(A,B) is severely constrained by the Poincare symmetry and the mathematical properties of the entropy. In particular, for one component sets in two dimensional conformal field theories its general form is completely determined. Moreover, it allows to prove an alternative entropic version of the c-theorem for 1+1 dimensional QFT. We propose this well defined quantity as the meaningfull entanglement entropy and comment on possible applications in QFT and the black hole evaporation problem.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, added references and erratu

Refined Holographic Entanglement Entropy for the AdS Solitons and AdS black Holes

We consider the refinement of the holographic entanglement entropy for the holographic dual theories to the AdS solitons and AdS black holes, including the corrected ones by the Gauss-Bonnet term. The refinement is obtained by extracting the UV-independent piece of the holographic entanglement entropy, the so-called renormalized entanglement entropy which is independent of the choices of UV cutoff. Our main results are (i) the renormalized entanglement entropies of the AdS$_{d+1}$ soliton for $d=4,5$ are neither monotonically decreasing along the RG flow nor positive definite, especially around the deconfinement/confinement phase transition; (ii) there is no topological entanglement entropy for AdS$_5$ soliton even with Gauss-Bonnet correction; (iii) for the AdS black holes, the renormalized entanglement entropy obeys an expected volume law at IR regime, and the transition between UV and IR regimes is a smooth crossover even with Gauss-Bonnet correction; (iv) based on AdS/MERA conjecture, we postulate that the IR fixed-point state for the non-extremal AdS soliton is a trivial product state.Comment: 48 pages, 24 figures; v2: few typos corrected; v3: mistake on the choice of dominant phase is corrected, differential subtraction scheme is introduced to remove the UV cutoff-ambiguity, some of the conclusions on RG flow are changed; v4: statement about C theorem revised; v5 Final version to NP