Renyi Entropies for Free Field Theories

Igor R. Klebanov, Silviu S. Pufu, Subir Sachdev, Benjamin R. Safdi

Published 2011-11-27, updated 2012-03-01Version 2

Renyi entropies S_q are useful measures of quantum entanglement; they can be calculated from traces of the reduced density matrix raised to power q, with q>=0. For (d+1)-dimensional conformal field theories, the Renyi entropies across S^{d-1} may be extracted from the thermal partition functions of these theories on either (d+1)-dimensional de Sitter space or R x H^d, where H^d is the d-dimensional hyperbolic space. These thermal partition functions can in turn be expressed as path integrals on branched coverings of the (d+1)-dimensional sphere and S^1 x H^d, respectively. We calculate the Renyi entropies of free massless scalars and fermions in d=2, and show how using zeta-function regularization one finds agreement between the calculations on the branched coverings of S^3 and on S^1 x H^2. Analogous calculations for massive free fields provide monotonic interpolating functions between the Renyi entropies at the Gaussian and the trivial fixed points. Finally, we discuss similar Renyi entropy calculations in d>2.