Universal Entanglement and Boundary Geometry in Conformal Field Theory
Sep 30, 2015
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Abstract: (Springer)
Employing a conformal map to hyperbolic space cross a circle, we compute the universal contribution to the vacuum entanglement entropy (EE) across a sphere in even-dimensional conformal field theory. Previous attempts to derive the EE in this way were hindered by a lack of knowledge of the appropriate boundary terms in the trace anomaly. In this paper we show that the universal part of the EE can be treated as a purely boundary effect. As a byproduct of our computation, we derive an explicit form for the A-type anomaly contribution to the Wess-Zumino term for the trace anomaly, now including boundary terms. In d = 4 and 6, these boundary terms generalize earlier bulk actions derived in the literature.Note:
- 35 pages text plus 17 pages appendices and references, 3 figures; v2 package conflict resolved; v3 refs added, claim regarding newness of boundary central charge in d=4 removed, factor of 3 typo fixed
- Field Theories in Lower Dimensions
- Conformal and W Symmetry
- Field Theories in Higher Dimensions
- Anomalies in Field and String Theories
- field theory: conformal
- entropy: entanglement
- boundary condition
- trace anomaly
- Wess-Zumino term
- central charge
References(57)
Figures(3)
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