Entanglement Structure of Deconfined Quantum Critical Points

Abstract

We study the entanglement properties of deconfined quantum critical points. We show not only that these critical points may be distinguished by their entanglement structure but also that they are in general more highly entangled that conventional critical points. We primarily focus on computations of the entanglement entropy of deconfined critical points in 2+1 dimensions, drawing connections to topological entanglement entropy and a recent conjecture on the monotonicity under RG flow of universal terms in the entanglement entropy. We also consider in some detail a variety of issues surrounding the extraction of universal terms in the entanglement entropy. Finally, we compare some of our results to recent numerical simulations.