Entanglement, soft modes, and celestial holography

Abstract

We evaluate the vacuum entanglement entropy across a cut of future null infinity for free Maxwell theory in four-dimensional Minkowski spacetime. The Weyl invariance of 4D Maxwell theory allows us to embed the Minkowski spacetime inside the Einstein static universe. The Minkowski vacuum can then be described as a thermofield double state on the (future) Milne wedges of the original and inverted Minkowski patches. We show that the soft mode contribution to entanglement entropy is due to correlations between asymptotic charges of these Milne wedges or, equivalently, nontrivial conformally soft (or edge) mode configurations at the entangling surface. Published by the American Physical Society 2024