An SL(2,C)-parametrized family of exactly solvable non-unitary conformal interfaces is constructed on the lattice in unitary CFTs via analytic continuation, leading to a non-unitary Cardy condition and logarithmic entanglement with generally complex effective central charge.
Entanglement evolution across a conformal interface
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abstract
For two dimensional conformal field theories in the ground state, it is known that a conformal interface along the entanglement cut can suppress the entanglement entropy from $S_A\sim c\log L$ to $S_A\sim c_{\text{eff}}\log L$, where $L$ is the length of the subsystem $A$, and $c_{\text{eff}}\in [0, c]$ is the effective central charge which depends on the transmission property of the conformal interface. In this work, by making use of conformal mappings, we show that a conformal interface has the same effect on entanglement evolution in non-equilibrium cases, including global, local and certain inhomogeneous quantum quenches. I.e., a conformal interface suppresses the time evolution of entanglement entropy by effectively replacing the central charge $c$ with $c_{\text{eff}}$, where $c_{\text{eff}}$ is exactly the same as that in the ground state case. We confirm this conclusion by a numerical study on a critical fermion chain. Furthermore, based on the quasi-particle picture, we conjecture that this conclusion holds for an arbitrary quantum quench in CFTs, as long as the initial state can be described by a regularized conformal boundary state.
years
2026 2verdicts
UNVERDICTED 2representative citing papers
Analytic continuation of marginal couplings produces complex CFTs, with no genuinely complex rational CFTs existing, and exact defect results verified in non-Hermitian Ising and fermion chains.
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Exactly solvable non-unitary conformal interfaces in unitary CFTs
An SL(2,C)-parametrized family of exactly solvable non-unitary conformal interfaces is constructed on the lattice in unitary CFTs via analytic continuation, leading to a non-unitary Cardy condition and logarithmic entanglement with generally complex effective central charge.