The scaling behavior of the entanglement entropy in 2+1 dimensional critical systems

Hsu, Benjamin

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/26157 Copy

Description

Title

The scaling behavior of the entanglement entropy in 2+1 dimensional critical systems

Author(s)

Hsu, Benjamin

Issue Date

2011-08-25T22:16:38Z

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Fradkin, Eduardo H.

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Vishveshwara, Smitha

Committee Member(s)

• Fradkin, Eduardo H.
• Leigh, Robert G.
• Budakian, Raffi

Department of Study

Physics

Discipline

Physics

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• conformal field theory
• quantum entanglement
• quantum information theory
• Lifschitz theory
• quantum quench
• quantum Hall

Abstract

The entanglement entropy in 1+1 dimensional critical system has been well studied and known to have a universal scaling form that gives information about the underlying critical system. While the case for 1+1 dimensional critical systems has been well studied, the situation in higher dimensional systems is less clear. In this work, I show that the entanglement entropy in a certain class of 2+1 dimensional critical systems, the conformal quantum critical theories, has a universal subleading correction that likewise gives information about the underlying critical system. In addition, I address the issue of whether the dynamical entanglement entropy, the entanglement generated by a local quantum quench, is an experimentally measurable quantity. This turns out not to be the case, but to arrive at this conclusion we studied quenching in a theory of strongly interacting electrons and applied methods of boundary conformal field theory to solve a hitherto open problem: the noise from an instantaneous switching of a quantum point contact separating two fractional quantum Hall fluids.

Graduation Semester

2011-08

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/26157

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2011 Benjamin Hsu

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