Time: 2pm
Location: 4N12
Title: Interfaces and Topological Entanglement in Abelian Chern-Simons Theory
Abstract: Starting from the condensed matter context, we consider the ground state entanglement across (possibly distinct) topological phases separated by a gapped interface. I will explain how addressing this from the effective gauge theory illuminates some generic features of entanglement entropy in systems with gauge invariance. In particular, we will explicitly implement the "extended Hilbert space" prescription directly in the continuum as well as highlight the unique role of the Ishibashi state in Chern-Simons entanglement. Time permitting, I will discuss extensions to this work including junctions of multiple topological phases and defining subsystems for theories with an open boundary.
