Gravitational Rényi entropy from corner terms
arXiv:2312.06765
Abstract
We provide a consistent first principles prescription to compute gravitational Rényi entropy using Hayward corner terms. For Euclidean solutions to Einstein gravity, we compute Rényi entropy of Hartle--Hawking and fixed--area states by cutting open a manifold containing a conical singularity into a wedge with a corner. The entropy functional for fixed--area states is equal to the corner term itself, having a flat-entanglement spectrum, while extremization of the functional follows from the variation of the corner term under diffeomorphisms. Notably, our method does not require regularization of the conical singularity, and naturally extends to higher-curvature theories of gravity.
5 pages, 2 figures; v2: References added; v3: minor edits, PRD version