Strong Subadditivity and Emergent Surface

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce two bounds which we call the Upper Differential Entropy and the Lower Differential Entropy for an infinite family of intervals(strips) in quantum field theory. The two bounds are equal provided that the theory is translational invariant and the entanglement entropy varies smoothly with respect to the interval. When the theory has a holographic dual, strong subadditivity of entanglement entropy indicates that there is always an emergent surface whose gravitational entropy is exactly given by the bound.