Asymptotic growth of the local ground-state entropy of the ideal Fermi gas in a constant magnetic field

TL;DR

This paper analyzes how the local ground-state entropy of an ideal Fermi gas in a constant magnetic field scales with system size, showing an area-law behavior in two dimensions and contrasting with the zero-field case.

Contribution

It provides a rigorous asymptotic analysis of the local entropy growth in a magnetic field, revealing a precise coefficient and demonstrating area-law scaling in two dimensions.

Findings

Entropy scales as L√B|∂Λ| for large L

Coefficient depends on magnetic field B and chemical potential μ

Contrasts with zero-field case where a logarithmic factor appears

Abstract

We consider the ideal Fermi gas of indistinguishable particles without spin but with electric charge, confined to a Euclidean plane $\mathbb R^2$ perpendicular to an external constant magnetic field of strength $B>0$. We assume this (infinite) quantum gas to be in thermal equilibrium at zero temperature, that is, in its ground state with chemical potential $\mu\ge B$ (in suitable physical units). For this (pure) state we define its local entropy $S(\Lambda)$ associated with a bounded (sub)region $\Lambda\subset \mathbb R^2$ as the von Neumann entropy of the (mixed) local substate obtained by reducing the infinite-area ground state to this region $\Lambda$ of finite area $|\Lambda|$. In this setting we prove that the leading asymptotic growth of $S(L\Lambda)$, as the dimensionless scaling parameter $L>0$ tends to infinity, has the form $L\sqrt{B}|\partial\Lambda|$ up to a precisely given (positive multiplicative) coefficient which is independent of $\Lambda$ and dependent on $B$ and $\mu$ only through the integer part of $(\mu/B-1)/2$. Here we have assumed the boundary curve $\partial\Lambda$ of $\Lambda$ to be sufficiently smooth which, in particular, ensures that its arc length $|\partial\Lambda|$ is well-defined. This result is in agreement with a so-called area-law scaling (for two spatial dimensions). It contrasts the zero-field case $B=0$, where an additional logarithmic factor $\ln(L)$ is known to be present. We also have a similar result, with a slightly more explicit coefficient, for the simpler situation where the underlying single-particle Hamiltonian, known as the Landau Hamiltonian, is restricted from its natural Hilbert space $\text L^2(\mathbb R^2)$ to the eigenspace of a single but arbitrary Landau level. Both results extend to the whole one-parameter family of quantum R\'enyi entropies.