Perturbative method for mutual information and thermal entropy of scalar quantum fields

Abstract

Abstract A new approach is presented to compute entropy for massless scalar quantum fields. By perturbing a skewed correlation matrix composed of field operator correlation functions, the mutual information is obtained for disjoint spherical regions of size r at separation R, including an expansion to all orders in r/R. This approach also permits a perturbative expansion for the thermal field entropy difference in the small temperature limit (T ≪ 1/r).