Entanglement Entropy of Topological Orders with Boundaries

Abstract

In this paper we explore how non trivial boundary conditions could influence the entanglement entropy in a topological order in 2+1 dimensions. Specifically we consider the special class of topological orders describable by the quantum double. We will find very interesting dependence of the entanglement entropy on the boundary conditions particularly when the system is non-Abelian. Along the way, we demonstrate a streamlined procedure to compute the entanglement entropy, which is particularly efficient when dealing with systems with boundaries. We also show how this method efficiently reproduces all the known results in the presence of anyonic excitations.