Skip to main content

Universal entanglement entropy in two-dimensional conformal quantum critical points

Cornell Affiliated Author(s)

Author

B. Hsu
M. Mulligan
E. Fradkin
Eun-Ah Kim

Abstract

We study the scaling behavior of the entanglement entropy of two-dimensional conformal quantum critical systems, i.e., systems with scale-invariant wave functions. They include two-dimensional generalized quantum dimer models on bipartite lattices and quantum loop models, as well as the quantum Lifshitz model and related gauge theories. We show that under quite general conditions, the entanglement entropy of a large and simply connected subsystem of an infinite system with a smooth boundary has a universal finite contribution, as well as scale-invariant terms for special geometries. The universal finite contribution to the entanglement entropy is computable in terms of the properties of the conformal structure of the wave function of these quantum critical systems. The calculation of the universal term reduces to a problem in boundary conformal field theory © 2009 The American Physical Society.

Date Published

Journal

Physical Review B - Condensed Matter and Materials Physics

Volume

79

Issue

11

URL

https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-64349115016&doi=10.1103%2fPhysRevB.79.115421&partnerID=40&md5=6c9e0e0950f8109d09e22ce00805083d

DOI

10.1103/PhysRevB.79.115421

Group (Lab)

Download citation