Effective field theory in light of relative entropy

Abstract

We study constraints on the effective field theory (EFT) from the relative entropy between two theories: we refer to these as target and reference theories. The consequence of the non-negativity of the relative entropy is investigated by choosing some reference theories for a given target theory involving field theories, quantum mechanical models, etc. It is found that the constraints on EFTs, e.g., the single massless scalar field with the dimension-eight operator, and SMEFT dimension-eight $SU(N)$ gauge bosonic operators, are consistent with the positivity bounds from the unitarity and causality when the higher-derivative operators are generated by the interaction between heavy and light fields. The constraints on Einstein-Maxwell theory with higher-derivative operators from the non-negativity of relative entropy are also investigated. The constraints on such EFTs from the relative entropy hold under an assumption that perturbative corrections from the interaction involving higher-derivative operators of light fields are not dominant in the EFTs. The consequence of this study on the weak gravity conjecture and the second law of thermodynamics is also discussed.