Entanglement and entropy in a spin-boson quantum phase transition

We investigate the entanglement properties of an ensemble of atoms interacting with a single bosonic field mode via the Dicke (superradiance) Hamiltonian. The model exhibits a quantum phase transition and a well-understood thermodynamic limit, allowing the identification of both quantum and semiclassical many-body features in the behavior of the entanglement. We consider the entanglement between the atoms and the field, an investigation initiated in Lambert et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 073602 (2004)]. In the thermodynamic limit, we give exact results for all entanglement partitions and observe a logarithmic divergence of the atom-field entanglement, and discontinuities in the average linear entropy.