Generalized entropy of photons in AdS

Abstract

This work analyzes the quantum corrections to holographic entanglement entropy at first subleading order in $G_{N}$ due to photon excited states in AdS. We compute the vacuum-subtracted von Neumann entropy of a $U(1)$ current excited state for a polar cap region on the cylinder in any large-$N$, strongly-coupled CFT$_{d}$ holographically dual to weakly-coupled Einstein gravity for any dimension $d>2$. We then quantize a Maxwell field in AdS$_{d+1}$ dual to the $U(1)$ current and consider a photon excited state whose vacuum-subtracted generalized entropy for the entanglement wedge is calculated. In order to factorise the Maxwell Hilbert space in AdS, we construct an extended Hilbert space and the corresponding electromagnetic edge modes. We find exact agreement between the CFT entanglement entropy and AdS generalized entropy without the inclusion of entropy of the edge modes. Finally, we show via explicit calculation that the contribution to the vacuum-subtracted von Neumann entropy from electromagnetic edge modes indeed vanishes, which is crucial for consistency with known holographic entropy formulas.