Entanglement entropy of excited states in the quantum Lifshitz model

Abstract

In this work we calculate the entanglement entropy of certain excited states of the quantum Lifshitz model (QLM). The QLM is a 2 + 1-dimensional bosonic quantum field theory with an anisotropic scaling symmetry between space and time that belongs to the universality class of the quantum dimer model and its generalizations. The states we consider are constructed by exciting the eigenmodes of the Laplace–Beltrami operator on the spatial manifold of the model. We perform a replica calculation and find that, whenever a simple assumption is satisfied, the bipartite entanglement entropy of any such excited state can be evaluated analytically. We show that the assumption is satisfied for all excited states on the rectangle and for almost all excited states on the sphere and provide explicit examples in both geometries. We find that the excited state entanglement entropy obeys an area law and is related to the entanglement entropy of the ground state by two universal constants. We observe a logarithmic dependence on the excitation number when all excitations are put onto the same eigenmode.