Extracting Universal Entanglement Scaling from Mixed Fermionic Gaussian States via Entanglement Projected Entropy

Abstract: Identifying spatial quantum correlations in mixed states is challenging because thermal mixed-state contributions obscure the entanglement encoded in subsystem entropy. Here, we introduce the entanglement projected entropy, a diagnostic for extracting boundary-sensitive quantum correlations from mixed fermionic Gaussian states. By resolving subsystem entropy into Gaussian entanglement channels and projecting their purification partners onto the physical complement, we obtain a closed-form expression in terms of the physical covariance matrix. In a one-dimensional free-fermion chain, it removes the volume-law mixed-state background and recovers the zero-temperature conformal scaling with the $c/3$ coefficient. In a two-dimensional half-filled $π$-flux model, it reveals a universal finite-temperature scaling collapse governed by an effective Dirac infrared length. These results establish entanglement projected entropy as a Gaussian spatial filter for boundary-sensitive quantum correlations hidden in mixed-state entropy.