Absence of logarithmic divergence of the entanglement entropies at the phase transitions of a 2D classical hard rod model

Entanglement entropy is a powerful tool to detect continuous, discontinuous and even topological phase transitions in quantum as well as classical systems. In this work, von Neumann and Renyi entanglement entropies are studied numerically for classical lattice models in a square geometry. A cut is made from the center of the square to the midpoint of one of its edges, say the right edge. The entanglement entropies measure the entanglement between the left and right halves of the system. As in the strip geometry, von Neumann and Renyi entanglement entropies diverge logarithmically at the transition point while they display a jump for first-order phase transitions. The analysis is extended to a classical model of non-overlapping finite hard rods deposited on a square lattice for which Monte Carlo simulations have shown that, when the hard rods span over 7 or more lattice sites, a nematic phase appears in the phase diagram between two disordered phases. A new Corner Transfer Matrix Renormalization Group algorithm (CTMRG) is introduced to study this model. No logarithmic divergence of entanglement entropies is observed at the phase transitions in the CTMRG calculation discussed here. We therefore infer that the transitions neither can belong to the Ising universality class, as previously assumed in the literature, nor be discontinuous. Graphical abstract