Wess-Zumino Consistency Condition for Entanglement Entropy

Shamik Banerjee

Published 2011-09-26, updated 2011-09-30Version 2

In this brief note, we consider the variation of the entanglement entropy of a region as the shape of the entangling surface is changed. We show that the variation satisfies a Wess-Zumino like integrability condition in field theories which can be consistently coupled to gravity. In this case the "anomaly" is localized on the entangling surface. The solution of the integrability condition should give all the nontrivial finite local terms which can appear in the variation of the entanglement entropy.