Bose-Fermi duality and entanglement entropies

TL;DR

This paper explores the universality and distinctions of entanglement entropies in quantum field theories, demonstrating Bose-Fermi duality and revealing surprising similarities in entanglement spectra between different theories.

Contribution

It shows that entanglement entropies respect Bose-Fermi duality and uncovers unexpected spectral coincidences between the Dirac fermion and self-dual boson in two dimensions.

Findings

Renyi entropies respect Bose-Fermi duality.

Second Renyi entropies agree for any number of intervals.

Entanglement spectra agree for two intervals despite theories being different.

Abstract

Entanglement (Renyi) entropies of spatial regions are a useful tool for characterizing the ground states of quantum field theories. In this paper we investigate the extent to which these are universal quantities for a given theory, and to which they distinguish different theories, by comparing the entanglement spectra of the massless Dirac fermion and the compact free boson in two dimensions. We show that the calculation of Renyi entropies via the replica trick for any orbifold theory includes a sum over orbifold twists on all cycles. In a modular-invariant theory of fermions, this amounts to a sum over spin structures. The result is that the Renyi entropies respect the standard Bose-Fermi duality. Next, we investigate the entanglement spectrum for the Dirac fermion without a sum over spin structures, and for the compact boson at the self-dual radius. These are not equivalent theories; nonetheless, we find that (1) their second Renyi entropies agree for any number of intervals, (2) their full entanglement spectra agree for two intervals, and (3) the spectrum generically disagrees otherwise. These results follow from the equality of the partition functions of the two theories on any Riemann surface with imaginary period matrix. We also exhibit a map between the operators of the theories that preserves scaling dimensions (but not spins), as well as OPEs and correlators of operators placed on the real line. All of these coincidences can be traced to the fact that the momentum lattice for the bosonized fermion is related to that of the self-dual boson by a 45 degree rotation that mixes left- and right-movers.