Entanglement entropy for a Dirac fermion in three dimensions: Vertex contribution

In three dimensions there is a logarithmically divergent contribution to the entanglement entropy which is due to the vertices located at the boundary of the region considered. In this work we find the corresponding universal coefficient for a free Dirac field, and extend a previous work in which the scalar case was treated. The problem is equivalent to find the conformal anomaly in three-dimensional space where multiplicative boundary conditions for the field are imposed on a plane angular sector. As an intermediate step of the calculation we compute the trace of the Green function of a massive Dirac field in a two-dimensional sphere with boundary conditions imposed on a segment of a great circle. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.