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Title: Linearity of holographic entanglement entropy

Abstract

Here, we consider the question of whether the leading contribution to the entanglement entropy in holographic CFTs is truly given by the expectation value of a linear operator as is suggested by the Ryu-Takayanagi formula. We investigate this property by computing the entanglement entropy, via the replica trick, in states dual to superpositions of macroscopically distinct geometries and find it consistent with evaluating the expectation value of the area operator within such states. However, we find that this fails once the number of semi-classical states in the superposition grows exponentially in the central charge of the CFT. Moreover, in certain such scenarios we find that the choice of surface on which to evaluate the area operator depends on the density matrix of the entire CFT. This nonlinearity is enforced in the bulk via the homology prescription of Ryu-Takayanagi. We thus conclude that the homology constraint is not a linear property in the CFT. We also discuss the existence of entropy operators in general systems with a large number of degrees of freedom.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [1]
  1. Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Inst. for Theoretical Physics, Dept. of Physics
  2. Inst. for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ (United States). School of Natural Sciences
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Stanford Univ., CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP); National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Contributing Org.:
Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)
OSTI Identifier:
1358372
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1356081
Grant/Contract Number:  
SC0009988; PHY-1316699
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Journal of High Energy Physics (Online)
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: Journal of High Energy Physics (Online); Journal Volume: 2017; Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 1029-8479
Publisher:
Springer Berlin
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS; AdS-CFT Correspondence; Black Holes in String Theory; Gauge-gravity correspondence; Conformal Field Theory; level-spacing distributions; black-holes; airy kernel; quantum; system; states; AdS-CFT correspondence; black holes in string theory; gauge-gravity correspondence; conformal field theory

Citation Formats

Almheiri, Ahmed, Dong, Xi, and Swingle, Brian. Linearity of holographic entanglement entropy. United States: N. p., 2017. Web. doi:10.1007/JHEP02(2017)074.
Almheiri, Ahmed, Dong, Xi, & Swingle, Brian. Linearity of holographic entanglement entropy. United States. https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP02(2017)074
Almheiri, Ahmed, Dong, Xi, and Swingle, Brian. Tue . "Linearity of holographic entanglement entropy". United States. https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP02(2017)074. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1358372.
@article{osti_1358372,
title = {Linearity of holographic entanglement entropy},
author = {Almheiri, Ahmed and Dong, Xi and Swingle, Brian},
abstractNote = {Here, we consider the question of whether the leading contribution to the entanglement entropy in holographic CFTs is truly given by the expectation value of a linear operator as is suggested by the Ryu-Takayanagi formula. We investigate this property by computing the entanglement entropy, via the replica trick, in states dual to superpositions of macroscopically distinct geometries and find it consistent with evaluating the expectation value of the area operator within such states. However, we find that this fails once the number of semi-classical states in the superposition grows exponentially in the central charge of the CFT. Moreover, in certain such scenarios we find that the choice of surface on which to evaluate the area operator depends on the density matrix of the entire CFT. This nonlinearity is enforced in the bulk via the homology prescription of Ryu-Takayanagi. We thus conclude that the homology constraint is not a linear property in the CFT. We also discuss the existence of entropy operators in general systems with a large number of degrees of freedom.},
doi = {10.1007/JHEP02(2017)074},
journal = {Journal of High Energy Physics (Online)},
number = 2,
volume = 2017,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Feb 14 00:00:00 EST 2017},
month = {Tue Feb 14 00:00:00 EST 2017}
}

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