Using the Ryu-Takayanagi conjectured formula for entanglement entropy in the context of gauge-gravity duality, we investigate properties of mutual information between two disjoint rectangular subsystems in finite temperature relativistic conformal field theories in $d$ spacetime dimensions and nonrelativistic scale-invariant theories in some generic examples. In all these cases, mutual information undergoes a transition beyond which it is identically zero. We study this transition in detail and find universal qualitative features for the above class of theories, which has holographic dual descriptions. We also obtain analytical results for mutual information in the specific regime of the parameter space. This demonstrates that mutual information contains the quantum entanglement part of the entanglement entropy, which is otherwise dominated by the thermal entropy at large temperatures.

• Received 7 April 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.87.126012