Generalized gravitational entropy of probe branes: Flavor entanglement holographically

Abstract

The notion of generalized gravitational entropy introduced by Lewkowycz and Maldacena allows, via the AdS/CFT correspondence, to calculate CFT entanglement entropies. We adapt the method to the case where flavor branes are present and treated in the probe approximation. This allows to calculate the leading flavor correction to the CFT entanglement entropy from the on-shell action of the probe, while dealing with the backreaction is avoided entirely and from the outset. As an application we give concise derivations for the contribution of massless and massive flavor degrees of freedom to the entanglement entropy in N = 4 SYM theory. © 2014 The Author(s).