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

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.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Physics

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2011

Author dc:creator

• Hsu, Benjamin

Contributors dc:contributor

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

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

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2011 Benjamin Hsu

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

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

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/26157