Entanglement entropy in dynamic quantum-coherent conductors

Konrad H. Thomas, Christian Flindt

Published 2014-11-14Version 1

We investigate the entanglement and the R\'enyi entropies of two electronic leads connected by a quantum point contact. For non-interacting electrons, the entropies can be related to the cumulants of the full counting statistics of transferred charge which in principle are measurable. We consider the entanglement entropy generated by operating the quantum point contact as a quantum switch which is opened and closed in a periodic manner. Using a numerically exact approach we analyze the conditions under which a logarithmic growth of the entanglement entropy predicted by conformal field theory should be observable in an electronic conductor. In addition, we consider clean single-particle excitations on top of the Fermi sea (levitons) generated by applying designed pulses to the leads. We identify a Hong-Ou-Mandel-like suppression of the entanglement entropy by interfering two levitons on a quantum point contact tuned to half transmission.