Markov Property of the Conformal Field Theory Vacuum and the a Theorem

CASINI, HORACIO; TESTÉ, EDUARDO; TORROBA, GONZALO

PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS

AMER PHYSICAL SOC

Año: 2017 vol. 118

0031-9007

We use strong subadditivity of entanglement entropy, Lorentz invariance, and the Markov property of the vacuum state of a conformal field theory to give new proof of the irreversibility of the renormalization group in d=4 space-time dimensions - the a theorem. This extends the proofs of the c and F theorems in dimensions d=2 and d=3 based on vacuum entanglement entropy, and gives a unified picture of all known irreversibility theorems in relativistic quantum field theory.