Entanglement-limited linear response in fermionic systems

Abstract

We propose a general connection between entanglement-entropy scaling laws and the linear response functions of particle-conserving fermionic systems in their ground state. Specifically, we show that the response to perturbations coupled to the particle number within a finite region exhibits the same size scaling as the entanglement entropy of that region. We explicitly verify this scaling in free-fermion systems that display area-law, volume-law, and critical forms of entanglement. The resulting entanglement-governed scaling of response functions leads to unexpected physical consequences. For instance, contrary to conventional expectations, the energy absorption rate and particle-number fluctuations in gapped systems scale with the boundary of the perturbed region rather than with its volume. Our work thus establishes a direct link between linear-response properties and many-body entanglement.