Prof. Zheng Yan
Zheng YAN is an Assistant Professor/Researcher at Westlake University. He received the Bachelor Degree from Dalian University of Technology in 2013 and the Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from Fudan University in 2019. Thereafter he worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow, then a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Hong Kong. In 2023, he joined the Westlake University as a Principal Investigator. His main research areas are theoretical and numerical studies of quantum many-body physics, as well as related quantum simulation/computing and quantum materials cross-disciplinary.
Bipartite entanglement and surface criticality: The extra contribution of non-ordinary edge in entanglement
Abstract:
Recent works on the scaling behaviors of entanglement entropy at the SO(5) deconfined quantum critical point (DQCP) sparked a huge controversy. Different bipartitions gave out totally different conclusions for whether the DQCP is consistent with a unitary conformal field theory. In this work, we connect two previously disconnected fields -- the many-body entanglement and the surface criticality -- to reveal the behaviors of entanglement entropy in various bipartite scenarios, and point out that only the ordinary bipartition purely reflects the criticality of the bulk; otherwise, the extra gapless edge mode will also contribute to the entanglement. We have demonstrated that the correspondence between the entanglement spectrum and the edge energy spectrum still approximately persists even at a bulk-gapless point, thereby influencing the behavior of entanglement entropy. Our results establish that boundary conditions induced by the cut are decisive for entanglement-based probes and provide practical protocols to separate bulk from boundary contributions.