Perturbative Method for Mutual Information and Thermal Entropy of Scalar Quantum Fields

Abstract: A new approach is presented to compute entropy for massless scalar quantum fields. By perturbing a skewed correlation matrix composed of field operator correlation functions, the mutual information is obtained for disjoint spherical regions of size $r$ at separation $R$, including an expansion to all orders in $r/R$. This approach also permits a perturbative expansion for the thermal field entropy difference in the small temperature limit ($T \ll 1/r$).