String Theory Journal Club

I use the quantum null energy condition in strongly coupled two dimensional field theories (QNEC2) as diagnostic tool to study a variety of phase structures, including crossover, second and first order phase transitions. A universal QNEC2 constraint for first order phase transitions with kinked entanglement entropy will be presented and I will discuss in general the relation between the QNEC2-inequality and monotonicity of the Casini–Huerta c-function. Then in a specific holographic example, I will show that evaluating QNEC2 for ground state solutions allows to predict the existence of phase transitions at finite temperature. Along the way I will discuss some universal behaviour which we found unexpectedly. Link: meet.google.com/gbj-tmns-err