On Holographic Entanglement Entropy and Higher Curvature Gravity

TL;DR

This paper investigates holographic entanglement entropy in higher curvature gravity theories, revealing that Wald's formula is insufficient and proposing an alternative for Lovelock gravity that accurately captures entropy contributions.

Contribution

It introduces a new prescription for calculating holographic entanglement entropy in Lovelock gravity, improving upon Wald's formula for higher curvature theories.

Findings

Wald's formula does not always give correct entanglement entropy

An alternative intrinsic curvature-based prescription works for Lovelock gravity

The new method matches universal entanglement entropy in 4D and 6D CFTs

Abstract

We examine holographic entanglement entropy with higher curvature gravity in the bulk. We show that in general Wald's formula for horizon entropy does not yield the correct entanglement entropy. However, for Lovelock gravity, there is an alternate prescription which involves only the intrinsic curvature of the bulk surface. We verify that this prescription correctly reproduces the universal contribution to the entanglement entropy for CFT's in four and six dimensions. We also make further comments on gravitational theories with more general higher curvature interactions.