2015/06/30 by Eric Perlmutter, Mukund Rangamani, Massimiliano Rota
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Central charge #Conformal field theory #Conformal map #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Field (mathematics) #Geometry #Mathematics #Physics #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #Quantum electrodynamics #Quantum entanglement #Quantum mechanics #Sign (mathematics) #Theoretical physics #hep-th #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.115.171601
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 171601 (2015) · 5 pages + refs. v2: minor change, added refs. v3: added refs
arxiv created 2015/09/22 · openalex publication_date 2015/10/20 · arxiv updated 2015/10/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
We explore properties of the universal terms in the entanglement entropy and logarithmic negativity in 4D conformal field theories, aiming to clarify the ways in which they behave like the analogous entanglement measures in quantum mechanics. We show that, unlike entanglement entropy in finite-dimensional systems, the sign of the universal part of entanglement entropy is indeterminate. In particular, if and only if the central charges obey a>c, the entanglement across certain classes of entangling surfaces can become arbitrarily negative, depending on the geometry and topology of the surface. The negative contribution is proportional to the product of a-c and the genus of the surface. Similarly, we show that in a>c theories, the logarithmic negativity does not always exceed the entanglement entropy.