Given a specific interacting quantum Hamiltonian in a general spatial dimension, can one access its entanglement properties, such as the entanglement entropy corresponding to the ground state wave function? Even though progress has been made in addressing this question for interacting bosons and quantum spins, as yet there exist no corresponding methods for interacting fermions. Here we show that the entanglement structure of interacting fermionic Hamiltonians has a particularly simple form—the interacting reduced density matrix can be written as a sum of operators that describe free fermions. This decomposition allows one to calculate the Renyi entropies for Hamiltonians which can be simulated via determinantal quantum Monte Carlo calculations, while employing the efficient techniques hitherto available only for free fermions. The method presented works for the ground state, as well as for the thermally averaged reduced density matrix.

• Received 28 July 2013
• Corrected 27 September 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.130402