Entanglement entropy for free scalar fields in AdS

Abstract

We compute entanglement entropy for free massive scalar fields in anti-de Sitter (AdS) space. The entangling surface is a minimal surface whose boundary is a sphere at the boundary of AdS. The entropy can be evaluated from the thermal free energy of the fields on a topological black hole by using the replica method. In odd-dimensional AdS, exact expressions of the Rényi entropy Sn are obtained for arbitrary n. We also evaluate 1-loop corrections coming from the scalar fields to holographic entanglement entropy. Applying the results, we compute the leading difference of entanglement entropy between two holographic CFTs related by a renormalization group flow triggered by a double trace deformation. The difference is proportional to the shift of a central charge under the flow.