Information-theoretical analysis of topological entanglement entropy and multipartite correlations

Abstract

A special feature of the ground state in a topologically ordered phase is the existence of large-scale correlations depending only on the topology of the regions. These correlations can be detected by the topological entanglement entropy or by a measure called irreducible correlation. We show that these two measures coincide for states obeying an area law and having zero correlation length. Moreover, we provide an operational meaning for these measures by proving its equivalence to the optimal rate of a particular class of secret sharing protocols. This establishes an information-theoretical approach to multipartite correlations in topologically ordered systems.