Petz–Rényi relative entropy in QFT from modular theory

Abstract We consider the generalization of the Araki–Uhlmann formula for relative entropy to Petz–Rényi relative entropy. We compute this entropy for a free scalar field in the Minkowski wedge between the vacuum and a coherent state, as well as for the free chiral current in a thermal state. In contrast to the relative entropy which in these cases only depends on the symplectic form and thus reduces to the classical entropy of a wave packet, the Petz–Rényi relative entropy also depends on the symmetric part of the two-point function and is thus genuinely quantum. We also consider the relation with standard subspaces, where we define the Rényi entropy of a vector and show that it admits an upper bound given by the entropy of the vector.