Endpoint contributions to excited-state modular Hamiltonians

TL;DR

This paper calculates how excited states affect modular Hamiltonians, revealing that local operators with certain weights contribute additional endpoint terms, with detailed results for stress tensors and scalar fields in conformal field theories.

Contribution

It introduces a general framework for understanding endpoint contributions to modular Hamiltonians caused by local operator perturbations, extending previous knowledge.

Findings

Endpoint contributions depend on operator weight n ≥ 2.

Explicit calculation for stress tensor perturbations in 2D CFTs.

Conjecture of a universal form for endpoint contributions in field theories.

Abstract

We compute modular Hamiltonians for excited states obtained by perturbing the vacuum with a unitary operator. We use operator methods and work to first order in the strength of the perturbation. For the most part we divide space in half and focus on perturbations generated by integrating a local operator $J$ over a null plane. Local operators with weight $n \geq 2$ under vacuum modular flow produce an additional endpoint contribution to the modular Hamiltonian. Intuitively this is because operators with weight $n \geq 2$ can move degrees of freedom from a region to its complement. The endpoint contribution is an integral of $J$ over a null plane. We show this in detail for stress tensor perturbations in two dimensions, where the result can be verified by a conformal transformation, and for scalar perturbations in a CFT. This lets us conjecture a general form for the endpoint contribution that applies to any field theory divided into half-spaces.