Entanglement scaling and dynamics in the Sauter-Schwinger effect
Abstract
In quantum field theory, entanglement entropy under spatial bipartitioning serves as a powerful information-theoretic probe of quantum correlations. In this work, we present the first comprehensive numerical study of the dynamical evolution and geometric scaling of entanglement entropy in a nonperturbative, strong-field QED setting -- specifically, in the context of the Sauter-Schwinger effect. While the weak-field regime is dominated by area-law states, we show that the entanglement entropy undergoes a transition from area-law to a volume-law scaling for certain strong-field regimes in the pulse-profile parameter space -- signaling a fundamental shift in the underlying correlation structure induced by nonperturbative pair production. For intermediate regimes, the scaling is a power-law that interpolates between area- and volume-law behavior. Finally, we provide interpretations based on the behavior of the low-energy pair-creation spectrum and discuss how these insights could inform future investigations of related phenomena.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2601.14390,
title = {Entanglement scaling and dynamics in the Sauter-Schwinger effect},
author = {S. Mahesh Chandran and Karthik Rajeev},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.14390},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
20 pages, 8 figures, 1 appendix