Horacio Casini

Towards a derivation of holographic entanglement entropy

We provide a derivation of holographic entanglement entropy for spherical entangling surfaces. Our construction relies on conformally mapping the boundary CFT to a hyperbolic geometry and observing that the vacuum state is mapped to a thermal state in the latter geometry. Hence the conformal transformation maps the entanglement entropy to the thermodynamic entropy of this thermal state. The AdS/CFT dictionary allows us to calculate this thermodynamic entropy as the horizon entropy of a certain topological black hole. In even dimensions, we also demonstrate that the universal contribution to the entanglement entropy is given by A-type trace anomaly for any CFT, without reference to holography.

Relative entropy and holography

A bstractRelative entropy between two states in the same Hilbert space is a fundamental statistical measure of the distance between these states. Relative entropy is always positive and increasing with the system size. Interestingly, for two states which are infinitesimally different to each other, vanishing of relative entropy gives a powerful equation ΔS = ΔH for the first order variation of the entanglement entropy ΔS and the expectation value of the modular Hamiltonian ΔH. We evaluate relative entropy between the vacuum and other states for spherical regions in the AdS/CFT framework. We check that the relevant equations and inequalities hold for a large class of states, giving a strong support to the holographic entropy formula. We elaborate on potential uses of the equation ΔS = ΔH for vacuum state tomography and obtain modified versions of the Bekenstein bound.

Spread of entanglement and causality

A bstractWe investigate causality constraints on the time evolution of entanglement entropy after a global quench in relativistic theories. We first provide a general proof that the so-called tsunami velocity is bounded by the speed of light. We then generalize the free particle streaming model of [1] to general dimensions and to an arbitrary entanglement pattern of the initial state. In more than two spacetime dimensions the spread of entanglement in these models is highly sensitive to the initial entanglement pattern, but we are able to prove an upper bound on the normalized rate of growth of entanglement entropy, and hence the tsunami velocity. The bound is smaller than what one gets for quenches in holographic theories, which highlights the importance of interactions in the spread of entanglement in many-body systems. We propose an interacting model which we believe provides an upper bound on the spread of entanglement for interacting relativistic theories. In two spacetime dimensions with multiple intervals, this model and its variations are able to reproduce intricate results exhibited by holographic theories for a significant part of the parameter space. For higher dimensions, the model bounds the tsunami velocity at the speed of light. Finally, we construct a geometric model for entanglement propagation based on a tensor network construction for global quenches.

Mutual information and the F-theorem

A bstractMutual 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.

Area terms in entanglement entropy

Fil: Casini, Horacio German. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas. Centro Cientifico Tecnologico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; Argentina. Comision Nacional de Energia Atomica. Gerencia del Area de Energia Nuclear. Instituto Balseiro; Argentina

Modular Hamiltonians on the null plane and the Markov property of the vacuum state

We compute the modular Hamiltonians of regions having the future horizon lying on a null plane. For a CFT this is equivalent to regions with a boundary of arbitrary shape lying on the null cone. These Hamiltonians have a local expression on the horizon formed by integrals of the stress tensor. We prove this result in two different ways, and show that the modular Hamiltonians of these regions form an infinite dimensional Lie algebra. The corresponding group of unitary transformations moves the fields on the null surface locally along the null generators with arbitrary null line dependent velocities, but act non-locally outside the null plane. We regain this result in greater generality using more abstract tools on the algebraic quantum field theory. Finally, we show that modular Hamiltonians on the null surface satisfy a Markov property that leads to the saturation of the strong sub-additive inequality for the entropies and to the strong super-additivity of the relative entropy.

Markov Property of the Conformal Field Theory Vacuum and the a Theorem

We use strong subadditivity of entanglement entropy, Lorentz invariance, and the Markov property of the vacuum state of a conformal field theory to give new proof of the irreversibility of the renormalization group in d=4 space-time dimensions-the a theorem. This extends the proofs of the c and F theorems in dimensions d=2 and d=3 based on vacuum entanglement entropy, and gives a unified picture of all known irreversibility theorems in relativistic quantum field theory.

The g-theorem and quantum information theory

A bstractWe study boundary renormalization group flows between boundary conformal field theories in 1 + 1 dimensions using methods of quantum information theory. We define an entropic g-function for theories with impurities in terms of the relative entanglement entropy, and we prove that this g-function decreases along boundary renormalization group flows. This entropic g-theorem is valid at zero temperature, and is independent from the g-theorem based on the thermal partition function. We also discuss the mutual information in boundary RG flows, and how it encodes the correlations between the impurity and bulk degrees of freedom. Our results provide a quantum-information understanding of (boundary) RG flow as increase of distinguishability between the UV fixed point and the theory along the RG flow.

Comments on Jacobson’s “entanglement equilibrium and the Einstein equation”

A bstractUsing holographic calculations, we examine a key assumption made in Jacobson’s recent argument for deriving Einstein’s equations from vacuum entanglement entropy. Our results involving relevant operators with low conformal dimensions seem to conflict with Jacobson’s assumption. However, we discuss ways to circumvent this problem.

Local temperatures and local terms in modular Hamiltonians

We show there are analogues to the Unruh temperature that can be defined for any quantum field theory and region of the space. These local temperatures are defined using relative entropy with localized excitations. We show important restrictions arise from relative entropy inequalities and causal propagation between Cauchy surfaces. These suggest a large amount of universality for local temperatures, specially the ones affecting null directions. For regions with any number of intervals in two space-time dimensions the local temperatures might arise from a term in the modular Hamiltonian proportional to the stress tensor. We argue this term might be universal, with a coefficient that is the same for any theory, and check analytically and numerically this is the case for free massive scalar and Dirac fields. In dimensions