• Accepted Paper

Finite-size scaling of entanglement entropy in the one-dimensional transverse field Ising model and the XX model

Haopeng Tian, Tianhao He, and Xintian Wu

Phys. Rev. B - Accepted 24 September, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/rlc2-ggbl

Abstract

We study the entanglement entropy (EE) of the one-dimensional transverse-field quantum Ising chain (QIC) and the XX (isotropic XY) chain under various boundary conditions (BCs). We numerically calculate the EE for a system of size L and a subsystem of size l at the critical point. Five BCs are considered: periodic, free-free, fixed-fixed (+,+) and (+,−), and fixed-free. We also employ exact solutions and conformal field theory (CFT) predictions, which yield results highly consistent with our numerical data. In our numerical approach, we apply the Jordan-Wigner transformation to map the spin chain to a system of spinless fermions and compute their correlation functions, from which the EE is subsequently derived. The EE is calculated for 19 different subsystem fractions, fixing l/L at values of 1/20,2/20,…,19/20 for each case. All numerical computations are performed using quadruple precision to ensure accuracy. We observe even-odd oscillations in the EE of the XX chain under free-free, fixed-fixed (+,+), fixed-fixed (+,−), and fixed-free BCs. We then fit the calculated EE using finite-size scaling expansions in terms of L−n and L−nlnL for each corresponding case. The fitted parameters for the leading lnL term and the constant term are found to coincide with CFT predictions to very high accuracy. For periodic BCs, the parameter for the L−2 correction term as a function of l/L is consistent with the conjecture by Calabrese Furthermore, we conjecture the form of the L−4 correction and analytically calculate its leading term using random matrix theory. For the XX chain with free-free BCs, we verify the relationship between the coefficient of the L−1 term and l/L extracted from the formula conjectured by Fagotti , and we obtain conjectured closed-form expressions for the coefficients of the L−2, L−3, and L−4 terms, which are supported by high-precision numerical fitting and partial analytical arguments. Utilizing the relationship between free-free and (+,+) BCs, we determine the form of the coefficients for the L−2 and L−4 terms in the XX chain with (+,+) BCs. Consequently, we obtain the first four parts of the alternating term in the EE for the XX chain under free-free and (+,+) BCs. For the EE of the first excited state in the QIC with free-free BCs, we conjecture the exact form of the L−1 correction term, which coincides perfectly with our numerical results. For the QIC with fixed-free BCs, we calculate the perturbation expansion around l/L=0 and 1 for the correction term stemming from the Ising CFT. Finally, inspired by the resonating valence bond (RVB) picture introduced by Laflorencie , we discuss the EE oscillations in the XX chain under the four aforementioned BCs qualitatively.

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