The structure of many-body entanglement

In this thesis we discuss the general spatial structure of quantum entanglement in local many-body systems. A central theme is the organizing power of the renormalization group for thinking about many-body entanglement. We argue that the coarse structure of entanglement across of wide variety of systems, from gapped topological phases to gapless Fermi liquids in a variety of dimensions, can all be understood within a unified framework. We discuss tensor network states inspired by entanglement considerations, probe the limits of the boundary law for entanglement entropy, speculate about connections between entanglement renormalization and holography, and develop the formalism of mutual information in quantum field theory. We proceed from general considerations about entanglement in lattice models of many-body physics to specific attempts to isolate the low energy structure of entanglement in quantum field theories. We conclude by describing some major open questions in the subject of many-body entanglement that we find particularly interesting.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Physics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2011

Author dc:creator

• Swingle, Brian Gordon

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Xiao-Gang Wen.

• Physics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/77494

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/77494