2008/02/29 by Sergey N. Solodukhin · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · Mathematics · #hep-th #cond-mat.stat-mech #gr-qc #math.DG #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2008.05.071
published as Phys.Lett.B665:305-309,2008 · 12 pages; minor corrections in (4.8), (4.16); final version to appear in PLB
arxiv created 2008/06/25 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
We use the conformal invariance and the holographic correspondence to fully specify the dependence of entanglement entropy on the extrinsic geometry of the 2d surface Σ that separates two subsystems of quantum strongly coupled N=4 SU(N) superconformal gauge theory. We extend this result and calculate entanglement entropy of a generic 4d conformal field theory. As a byproduct, we obtain a closed-form expression for the entanglement entropy in flat space-time when Σ is sphere S2 and when Σ is two-dimensional cylinder. The contribution of the type A conformal anomaly to entanglement entropy is always determined by topology of surface Σ while the dependence of the entropy on the extrinsic geometry of Σ is due to the type B conformal anomaly.