Semiclassical entanglement entropy for spin-field interaction

Abstract

We study a general bipartite quantum system consisting of a spin interacting with a bosonic field, with the initial state prepared as the product of a spin coherent state and a canonical coherent state. Our goal is to develop a semiclassical framework to describe the entanglement dynamics between these two subsystems. Using appropriate approximations, we derive a semiclassical expression for the entanglement entropy that depends exclusively on the trajectories of the underlying classical description. By analytically extending the classical phase space into the complex domain, we identify additional complex trajectories that significantly improve the accuracy of the semiclassical description. The inclusion of these complex trajectories allows us to capture the entanglement dynamics with remarkable precision, even well beyond the Ehrenfest time. The approach is illustrated with a representative example, where the role of real and complex trajectories in reproducing the quantum entanglement entropy is explicitly demonstrated.