Quantum Metric and Entanglement on Spin Networks

Abstract

Motivated by the idea that, in the background-independent framework of a Quantum Theory of Gravity, entanglement is expected to play a key role in the reconstruction of spacetime geometry, we investigate the possibility of using the formalism of Geometric Quantum Mechanics (GQM) to give a tensorial characterization of entanglement on spin network states. Our analysis focuses on the simple case of a single link graph (Wilson line state) for which we define a dictionary to construct a Riemannian metric tensor and a symplectic structure on the space of states. The manifold of (pure) quantum states is then stratified in terms of orbits of equally entangled states and the block-coefficient matrices of the corresponding pulled-back tensors fully encode the information about separability and entanglement. In particular, the off-diagonal blocks define an entanglement monotone interpreted as a distance with respect to the separable state. As such, it provides a measure of graph connectivity. Finally, in the maximally entangled gauge-invariant case, the entanglement monotone is proportional to a power of the area of the surface dual to the link. This suggests a connection between the GQM formalism and the (simplicial) geometric properties of spin network states through entanglement.