Entanglement Entropy of Massive Scalar Fields: Mass Suppression, Violation of Universal mR Scaling, and Implications for Black Hole Thermodynamics

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Autori principali: Bellucci, S., Shatnev, M., Zazunov, L.
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author Bellucci, S.
Shatnev, M.
Zazunov, L.
author_facet Bellucci, S.
Shatnev, M.
Zazunov, L.
contents We investigate the entanglement entropy of a massive scalar field using the spherical shell lattice model introduced by Das and Shankaranarayanan. A systematic numerical analysis is performed to study the dependence of the entropy on the field mass and on the size of the entangling region for both ground and excited states. For the ground state, we find that the entanglement entropy is exponentially suppressed by the field mass, reflecting the presence of a finite correlation length, while the geometric area-law scaling remains robust for all masses. For localized excited states, however, we uncover a qualitatively different behavior. The excess entropy does not exhibit universal scaling in the dimensionless variable mR. Instead, numerical results show that data points with identical mR but different (m,R) pairs do not collapse onto a single curve, demonstrating a clear violation of simple scaling. This breakdown is traced to the presence of an additional length scale associated with the finite width of the wave-packet excitation. This result identifies the coexistence of multiple infrared scales as a key feature of excited-state entanglement in massive quantum field theories. Mutual information provides an additional finite diagnostic of correlations in the chosen nested geometry. The numerical results show a strong dependence on the field mass, although the detailed behavior is sensitive to the geometric setup used in the calculation. These findings clarify how particle mass and excitation structure jointly determine entanglement properties, and suggest that the matter contribution to the generalized entropy in semiclassical gravity may depend on independent infrared parameters rather than on a single correlation scale. Implications for black hole entropy and the island formula are briefly discussed.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_24158
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Entanglement Entropy of Massive Scalar Fields: Mass Suppression, Violation of Universal mR Scaling, and Implications for Black Hole Thermodynamics
Bellucci, S.
Shatnev, M.
Zazunov, L.
High Energy Physics - Theory
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
We investigate the entanglement entropy of a massive scalar field using the spherical shell lattice model introduced by Das and Shankaranarayanan. A systematic numerical analysis is performed to study the dependence of the entropy on the field mass and on the size of the entangling region for both ground and excited states. For the ground state, we find that the entanglement entropy is exponentially suppressed by the field mass, reflecting the presence of a finite correlation length, while the geometric area-law scaling remains robust for all masses. For localized excited states, however, we uncover a qualitatively different behavior. The excess entropy does not exhibit universal scaling in the dimensionless variable mR. Instead, numerical results show that data points with identical mR but different (m,R) pairs do not collapse onto a single curve, demonstrating a clear violation of simple scaling. This breakdown is traced to the presence of an additional length scale associated with the finite width of the wave-packet excitation. This result identifies the coexistence of multiple infrared scales as a key feature of excited-state entanglement in massive quantum field theories. Mutual information provides an additional finite diagnostic of correlations in the chosen nested geometry. The numerical results show a strong dependence on the field mass, although the detailed behavior is sensitive to the geometric setup used in the calculation. These findings clarify how particle mass and excitation structure jointly determine entanglement properties, and suggest that the matter contribution to the generalized entropy in semiclassical gravity may depend on independent infrared parameters rather than on a single correlation scale. Implications for black hole entropy and the island formula are briefly discussed.
title Entanglement Entropy of Massive Scalar Fields: Mass Suppression, Violation of Universal mR Scaling, and Implications for Black Hole Thermodynamics
topic High Energy Physics - Theory
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.24158