Entanglement entropy in Abelian gauge theories

The definition of geometric entanglement entropy associated with some region in space is discussed for the case of gauge theories. It is argued that since in gauge theories elementary excitations look like loops (closed electric strings) rather than points (particles), the boundaries of the regions should also carry some nonzero entropy. This entropy counts the number of strings which cross these boundaries. Explicit calculations of such entropy are carried out in the limits of infinitely strong and weak couplings of three- and four-dimensional Z _N gauge theories. In three dimensions we find that the entropy is a constant which does not depend on the region, while in four dimensions the familiar area law for the entropy is recovered.