A quantum information perspective on meson melting

Understand

We propose to use quantum information notions to characterize thermally induced melting of nonperturbative bound states at high temperatures.

• We apply tensor networks to investigate this idea in static and dynamical settings within the Ising quantum field theory, where bound states are confined fermion pairs - mesons.
• An equilibrium signature of meson melting is identified in the temperature dependence of the thermal-state second R\'enyi entropy, which varies from exponential to power-law scaling.
• Out of equilibrium, we identify as the relevant signature the transition from an oscillatory to a linear growing behavior of reflected entropy after a thermal quench.