The entanglement entropy of one-dimensional systems in continuous and homogeneous space

We introduce a systematic framework for calculating the bipartite entanglement entropy of a compact spatial subsystem in a one-dimensional quantum gas which can be mapped into a non-interacting fermion system. We show that when working with a finite number of particles N, the Renyi entanglement entropies grow as ln N, with a prefactor that is given by the central charge. We apply this novel technique to the ground state and to excited states of periodic systems. We also consider systems with boundaries. We derive universal formulas for the leading behavior and for subleading corrections to the scaling. The universality of the results allows us to make predictions for the finite size scaling forms of the corrections to the scaling.