Swing surfaces and holographic entanglement beyond AdS/CFT

Abstract

Abstract We propose a holographic entanglement entropy prescription for general states and regions in two models of holography beyond AdS/CFT known as flat3/BMSFT and (W)AdS3/WCFT. Flat3/BMSFT is a candidate of holography for asymptotically flat three- dimensional spacetimes, while (W)AdS3/WCFT is relevant in the study of black holes in the real world. In particular, the boundary theories are examples of quantum field theories that feature an infinite dimensional symmetry group but break Lorentz invariance. Our holographic entanglement entropy proposal is given by the area of a swing surface that consists of ropes, which are null geodesics emanating from the entangling surface at the boundary, and a bench, which is a spacelike geodesic connecting the ropes. The proposal is supported by an extension of the Lewkowycz-Maldacena argument, reproduces previous results based on the Rindler method, and satisfies the first law of entanglement entropy.