Quantum Entanglement and the Thermal Hadron

TL;DR

This paper explores how bound states in strongly interacting gauge theories can be described as thermal ensembles using entanglement entropy, enabling spectrum calculations without solving Schrödinger equations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel thermal ensemble framework based on entanglement entropy for analyzing hadron spectra in gauge theories, extending to models in 1+1 dimensions.

Findings

Effective spectrum calculations without Schrödinger equation

Validation of the thermal ensemble approach in 1+1D models

Discussion on extending the method to higher dimensions

Abstract

This paper tests how effectively the bound states of strongly interacting gauge theories are amenable to an emergent description as a thermal ensemble. This description can be derived from a conjectured minimum free energy principle, with the entanglement entropy of two-parton subsystems playing the role of thermodynamic entropy. This allows us to calculate the ground state hadron spectrum and wavefunction over a wide range of parton masses without solving the Schr\"{o}dinger equation. We carry out this analysis for certain illustrative models in 1+1 dimensions and discuss prospects for higher dimensions.