Left-Right Relative Entropy

Abstract

The concept of distinguishability lies at the heart of quantum information theory. We introduce \textit{left-right relative entropy} as a quantitative measure of distinguishability within the space of boundary states in two-dimensional conformal field theories (CFTs). By tracing over either the left- or right-moving modes, we derive a universal formula for arbitrary regularized boundary states defined on a circle. Remarkably, the resulting quantity reduces to a Kullback--Leibler divergence, where the associated probability distribution is determined entirely by the modular $\mathcal{S}$-matrix and the boundary data. For diagonal CFTs, we obtain exact expressions for the left-right relative entropy in terms of modular data, and extend the framework to define \textit{Sandwiched Left-Right Rényi relative entropies} and \textit{left-right fidelity}. Applying this formalism to the Ising model, tricritical Ising model, and $\widehat{su}(2)_k$ WZW model, we uncover a striking phenomenon: the left-right relative entropy between certain reduced boundary states vanishes even though the corresponding global boundary states are orthogonal. This observation motivates the introduction of \textit{relative entanglement sectors}, defined as equivalence classes of boundary states that are indistinguishable with respect to left-right relative entropy. These sectors transform as NIM-representations of global symmetries and exhibit level-dependent structures that mirror $\mathbb{Z}_2$ 't Hooft anomalies. Our findings establish an unexpected bridge between quantum information measures, boundary conformal symmetry, and quantum anomaly constraints.