2016/11/30 by Vijay Balasubramanian, Jackson R. Fliss, Robert G. Leigh +1 · 3 citations
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Operator Algebra Research #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Gauge theory #Linking number #Multipartite entanglement #Quantum entanglement #Quantum many-body systems #Squashed entanglement #Tensor product #Topological entropy in physics #Torus #hep-th #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/jhep04(2017)061
published as J. High Energ. Phys. (2017) 2017: 61 · 37 pages, 19 figures
openalex created_date 2016/11/30 · openalex publication_date 2017/04/01 · arxiv created 2017/04/16 · arxiv updated 2017/04/18 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We consider Chern-Simons theory for gauge group G at level k on 3-manifolds M n with boundary consisting of n topologically linked tori. The Euclidean path integral on M n defines a quantum state on the boundary, in the n-fold tensor product of the torus Hilbert space. We focus on the case where M n is the link-complement of some n-component link inside the three-sphere S 3. The entanglement entropies of the resulting states define framing-independent link invariants which are sensitive to the topology of the chosen link. For the Abelian theory at level k (G = U(1) k ) we give a general formula for the entanglement entropy associated to an arbitrary (m|n − m) partition of a generic n-component link into sub-links. The formula involves the number of solutions to certain Diophantine equations with coefficients related to the Gauss linking numbers (mod k) between the two sublinks. This formula connects simple concepts in quantum information theory, knot theory, and number theory, and shows that entanglement entropy between sublinks vanishes if and only if they have zero Gauss linking (mod k). For G = SU(2) k , we study various two and three component links. We show that the 2-component Hopf link is maximally entangled, and hence analogous to a Bell pair, and that the Whitehead link, which has zero Gauss linking, nevertheless has entanglement entropy. Finally, we show that the Borromean rings have a “W-like” entanglement structure (i.e., tracing out one torus does not lead to a separable state), and give examples of other 3-component links which have “GHZ-like” entanglement (i.e., tracing out one torus does lead to a separable state).