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Title: New constraints for holographic entropy from maximin: A no-go theorem

Journal Article · · Physical Review D

The Ryu-Takayanagi (RT) formula for static spacetimes arising in the AdS/CFT correspondence satisfies inequalities that are not yet proven in the case of the Rangamani-Hubeny-Takayanagi (HRT) formula, which applies to general dynamical spacetimes. Wall’s maximin construction is the only known technique for extending inequalities of holographic entanglement entropy from the static to dynamical case. We show that this method currently has no further utility when dealing with inequalities for five or fewer regions. Despite this negative result, we propose the validity of one new inequality for covariant holographic entanglement entropy for five regions. This inequality, while not maximin provable, is much weaker than many of the inequalities satisfied by the RT formula and should therefore be easier to prove. If it is valid, then there is strong evidence that holographic entanglement entropy plays a role in general spacetimes including those that arise in cosmology. Our new inequality is obtained by the assumption that the HRT formula satisfies every known balanced inequality obeyed by the Shannon entropies of classical probability distributions. This is a property that the RT formula has been shown to possess and which has been previously conjectured to hold for quantum mechanics in general.

Research Organization:
Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP); Foundational Questions Inst. (United States)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0011702; FQXi-RFP-1507
OSTI ID:
1434555
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1498657
Journal Information:
Physical Review D, Journal Name: Physical Review D Vol. 97 Journal Issue: 8; ISSN 2470-0010
Publisher:
American Physical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 14 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (19)

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Pulling the boundary into the bulk journal July 2018

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