Quantum information measures and their applications in quantum field theory

Abstract

In the last decades, it has been understood that a wide variety of phenomena in quantum field theory (QFT) can be characterised using quantum information measures, such as the entanglement entropy of a state and the relative entropy between quantum states in the same Hilbert space. In this thesis, we use these and other tools from quantum information theory to study several interesting problems in quantum field theory. The topics analysed range from the study of the Aharonov-Bohm effect in QFT using entanglement entropy, to the consistence of the Ryu-Takayanagi formula (proposed in the context of the AdS/CFT duality) using properties of relative entropy. We show that relative entropy can also be used to obtain new interesting quantum energy inequalities, that constrain the spatial distribution of negative energy density.