Entanglement Entropy, Quantum Fluctuations, and Thermal Entropy in Topological Phases

Abstract

Entanglement entropy in topologically ordered matter phases has been computed extensively using various methods. In this paper, we study the entanglement entropy of topological phases in two-spaces from a new perspective---the perspective of quasiparticle fluctuations. In this picture, the entanglement spectrum of a topologically ordered system is identified with the spectrum of quasiparticle fluctuations of the system, and the entanglement entropy measures the maximal quasiparticle fluctuations on the EB. As a consequence, entanglement entropy corresponds to the thermal entropy of the quasiparticles at infinite temperature on the entanglement boundary. We corroborates our results with explicit computation in the quantum double model with/without boundaries. We then systematically construct the reduced density matrices of the quantum double model on generic 2-surfaces with boundaries.