We study the response function of Unruh-deWitt detectors placed in a flat spacetime inside a thin matter shell. We show that the response function distinguishes between the local and global (Minkowski) inertial frames and picks up the presence of the shell even when the detector is switched on for a finite time interval within which a light signal cannot travel to the shell and back as required by a classical measurement. We also analyze how the response of the detector depends on its location within the shell.
In this paper we scrutinize the concept of locally inertial reference frames (LIRF) in Lorentzian and Riemann-Cartan spacetime structures. We present rigorous mathematical definitions for those objects, something that needs preliminary a clear mathematical distinction between the concepts of observers, reference frames, naturally adapted coordinate functions to a given reference frame and which properties may characterize an inertial reference frame (if any) in the Lorentzian and Riemann-Cartan structures. We hope to have clarified some eventual obscure issues associated to the concept of LIRF…
We generalise the study of fermionic and bosonic entanglement in non-inertial frames to fields of arbitrary spin and beyond the single mode approximation. After the general analysis we particularise for two interesting cases: entanglement between an inertial and an accelerated observer for massless fields of spin 1 (electromagnetic) and 3/2 (Rarita-Schwinger). We show that in the limit of infinite acceleration, no significant differences appear between the different spin fields for the states considered.
We analyse an ambiguity in previous works on entanglement of fermionic fields in non-inertial frames. This ambiguity, related to the anticommutation properties of field operators, leads to non-unique results when computing entanglement measures for the same state. We show that the ambiguity disappears when we introduce detectors, which are in any case necessary as a means to probe the field entanglement.
We study families of fermionic field states in non-inertial frames which show no entanglement survival in the infinite acceleration limit. We generalise some recent results where some particular examples of such states where found. We analyse the abundance and characteristics of the states showing this behaviour and discuss its relation with the statistics of the field. We also consider the phenomenon beyond the single mode approximation.
We analyse the entanglement tradeoff between particle and anti-particle modes of a Dirac field from the perspective of inertial and uniformly accelerated observers. Our results show that a redistribution of entanglement between particle and anti-particle modes plays a key role in the survival of fermionic field entanglement in the infinite acceleration limit.
We analyse the entanglement tradeoff between particle and anti-particle modes of a charged bosonic field between inertial and uniformly accelerated observers. In contrast with previous results for fermionic fields, we find that the entanglement redistribution between particle and antiparticle modes does not prevent the entanglement from vanishing in the infinite acceleration limit.
We introduce a relativistic version of quantum encryption protocol by considering two inertial observers who wish to securely transmit quantum information encoded in a free scalar quantum field state forming Minkowski particles. In a non-relativistic setting a certain amount of shared classical resources is necessary to perfectly encrypt the state. We show that in the case of a uniformly accelerated eavesdropper the communicating parties need to share (asymptotically in the limit of infinite acceleration) just half of the classical resources.
We develop a general technique to analyse the quantum effects of acceleration on realistic spatially-localised electromagnetic field states entangled in the polarization degree of freedom. We show that for this setting, quantum entanglement may build up as the acceleration increases, providing a clear signature of the quantum effects of relativistic acceleration.
Classical electron theory with classical electromagnetic zero-point radiation (stochastic electrodynamics) is the classical theory which most closely approximates quantum electrodynamics. Indeed, in inertial frames, there is a general connection between classical field theories with classical zero-point radiation and quantum field theories. However, this connection does not extend to noninertial frames where the time parameter is not a geodesic coordinate. Quantum field theory applies the canonical quantization procedure (depending on the local time coordinate) to a mirror-walled box, and, in …
We show that quantum field correlations in non-inertial frames are not as persistent as previously thought. We perform a simple calculation showing that the geometric discord, a measure of quantum correlations, does decay to zero in the infinite acceleration limit. This result is seen to be a natural and expected consequence of considering correlations in an infinite dimensional system, and it sheds doubt on the existence of useable quantum correlations in this regime. We contrast our results with previous research showing that the acceleration-induced degradation of quantum discord was not st…
After a review of the existing theory of non-inertial frames and mathematical observers in Minkowski space-time we give the explicit expression of a family of such frames obtained from the inertial ones by means of point-dependent Lorentz transformations as suggested by the locality principle. These non-inertial frames have non-Euclidean 3-spaces and contain the differentially rotating ones in Euclidean 3-spaces as a subcase. Then we discuss how to replace mathematical accelerated observers with dynamical ones (their world-lines belong to interacting particles in an isolated system) and of how…
Recently relativistic quantum information has received considerable attention due to its theoretical importance and practical application. Especially, quantum entanglement in non-inertial reference frames has been studied for scalar and Dirac fields. As a further step along this line, we here shall investigate quantum entanglement of electromagnetic fields in non-inertial reference frames. In particular, the entanglement of photon helicity entangled state is extensively analyzed. Interestingly, the resultant logarithmic negativity and mutual information remain the same as those for inertial re…
Quantum channel discrimination is used to test quantum field theory in non-inertial frames. We search for optimal strategies which can best see the thermality of the Unruh effect. We find that the usual strategy of counting particles in the vacuum can be improved, thereby enhancing the discrimination. Coherent state probes, which are practical and feasible, give exponential improvement in the discrimination of the Unruh channel and come very close to optimal. In particular, we show that using a short pulse laser, the accelerations required to test the Unruh effect can be reduced by at least th…
In this paper the notion of the rigid frame of reference within special relativity is analysed. Three definitions of rigidity are formulated. By using several examples of non-inertial frames, it is shown that these definitions are not equivalent. It is also shown that so called Möller rigid non-inertial frames are locally rigid, but do not exhibit global rigidity. The physical meaning of this phenomenon is discussed, as well as its relation to the non-Euclidean nature of space in non-inertial frames of reference. (russian version)
We propose a scheme to study the effect of motion on measurements of a quantum field carried out by a finite-size detector. We introduce a model of projective detection of a localised field mode in an arbitrary reference frame. We apply it to extract vacuum entanglement by a pair of counter-accelerating detectors and to estimate the Unruh temperature of a single accelerated detector. The introduced method allows us to directly relate the observed effects with the instantaneous proper acceleration of the detector.
An open question in the field of relativistic quantum information is how parties in arbitrary motion may distribute and store quantum entanglement. We propose a scheme for storing quantum information in the field modes of cavities moving in flat space-time and analyze it in a quantum field theoretical framework. In contrast to previous work that found entanglement degradation between observers moving with uniform acceleration, we find the quantum information in such systems is protected. We further discuss a method for establishing the entanglement in the first place and show that in principle…
By invoking inverse temperature as a van Kampen-Isreal future-directed timelike 4-vector, this paper derives the Relativistic Blackbody Spectrum, the Relativistic Wien's Displacement Law, and the Relativistic Stefan-Boltzmann Law in inertial and non-inertial reference frames.
In this work, we describe the process of teleportation between Alice in an inertial frame, and Rob who is in uniform acceleration with respect to Alice. The fidelity of the teleportation is reduced due to Davies-Unruh radiation in Rob's frame. In so far as teleportation is a measure of entanglement, our results suggest that quantum entanglement is degraded in non-inertial frames. We discuss this reduction in fidelity for both bosonic and fermionic resources.
By using the 3+1 point of view and parametrized Minkowski theories we develop the theory of {\it non-inertial} frames in Minkowski space-time. The transition from a non-inertial frame to another one is a gauge transformation connecting the respective notions of instantaneous 3-space (clock synchronization convention) and of the 3-coordinates inside them. As a particular case we get the extension of the inertial rest-frame instant form of dynamics to the non-inertial rest-frame one. We show that every isolated system can be described as an external decoupled non-covariant canonical center of ma…
Two observers determine the entanglement between two free bosonic modes by each detecting one of the modes and observing the correlations between their measurements. We show that a state which is maximally entangled in an inertial frame becomes less entangled if the observers are relatively accelerated. This phenomenon, which is a consequence of the Unruh effect, shows that entanglement is an observer-dependent quantity in non-inertial frames. In the high acceleration limit, our results can be applied to a non-accelerated observer falling into a black hole while the accelerated one barely esca…
In this paper we explicitly show that in general relativity, the relative velocity of two local inertial frames is always less than the velocity of light. This fact is a by-product of the equivalence principle. The general result is then illustrated within two examples, the FLRW cosmological model and the Schwarzschild metric.
We apply the theory of non-inertial frames in Minkowski space-time, developed in the previous paper, to various relevant physical systems. We give the 3+1 description without coordinate-singularities of the rotating disk and the Sagnac effect, with added comments on pulsar magnetosphere and on a relativistic extension of the Earth-fixed coordinate system. Then we study properties of Maxwell equations in non-inertial frames like the wrap-up effect and the Faraday rotation in astrophysics.
A relativistic theory of gravity like general relativity produces phenomena differing fundamentally from Newton's theory. An example, analogous to electromagnetic induction, is gravitomagnetism, or the dragging of inertial frames by mass-energy currents. These effects have recently been confirmed by classical observations. Here we show, for the first time, that they can be observed by a quantum detector. We study the response function of Unruh De-Witt detectors placed in a slowly rotating shell. We show that the response function picks up the presence of rotation even though the spacetime insi…
We define a new parameter `cumulative drag index' for a particle in circular orbit in a stationary, axisymmetric gravitational field and study its behaviour in the two well known solutions of general relativity {\it viz.}, the Kerr spacetime and the Gödel spacetime, wherein the inertial frame dragging has an important role. As it shows similar behaviour for both co and counter rotating particles, it may indeed be an indication of the influence of the faraway universe on local physics and thus Machian.
If perturbations beyond the horizon have the velocities prescribed everywhere then the dragging of inertial frames near the origin is suppressed by an exponential factor. However if perturbations are prescribed in terms of their angular momenta there is no such suppression. We resolve this paradox and in doing so give new explicit results on the dragging of inertial frames in closed, flat and open universe with and without a cosmological constant.
We study the distribution of entanglement between modes of a free scalar field from the perspective of observers in uniform acceleration. We consider a two-mode squeezed state of the field from an inertial perspective, and analytically study the degradation of entanglement due to the Unruh effect, in the cases of either one or both observers undergoing uniform acceleration. We find that for two observers undergoing finite acceleration, the entanglement vanishes between the lowest frequency modes. The loss of entanglement is precisely explained as a redistribution of the inertial entanglement i…
We calculate the rotation of the inertial frames within an almost flat cylindrical region surrounded by a pulse of non-axially-symmetric gravitational waves that rotate about the axis of our cylindrical polar coordinates. Our spacetime has only one Killing vector. It is along the z-axis and hypersurface orthogonal. We solve the Einstein equations to first order in the wave amplitude and superpose such linearized solutions to form a wave pulse. We then solve the relevant Einstein equation to second order in the amplitude to find the rotation of inertial frames produced by the pulse. The rotatio…
In the present work, rotation of the polarization vector of an electromagnetic wave is extensively calculated for a rotating observer, who can also be considered as a non-inertial accelerated observer. The rotation of the polarization vector calculated here is only due to the effect of the non-inertial frame, considering that the light source is at a distance and it is emitting a plane polarized light. Earth has been taken as an example of rotating frame and the amount of rotation of polarization vector is calculated where it is found that the amount of rotation of polarization vector depends …
For the example of an accelerated shell we show that omission of the energy-momentum tensor (EMT) of the body that causes the acceleration and the tensions due to this acceleration can lead to a paradoxical result; Namely, the entrainment of an inertial frame by the accelerated shell in the direction opposite to that of the acceleration. We consider several models and demonstrate that the correct result can be obtained only if all components of the full EMT are adequately taken into account, and the problem statement is physically correct.
In this paper, we review and analyze four specific general-relativistic problems in which gravitomagnetism plays an important role: the dragging of magnetic fields around rotating black holes, dragging inside a collapsing slowly rotating spherical shell of dust, compared with the dragging by rotating gravitational waves. We demonstrate how the quantum detection of inertial frame dragging can be accomplished by using the Unruh-DeWitt detectors. Finally, we shall briefly show how ``instantaneous Machian gauges'' can be useful in the cosmological perturbation theory.
A new formulation of relativistic classical mechanics allows a revisiting of old unsolved problems in relativistic kinetic theory and in relativistic statistical mechanics. In particular a definition of the relativistic micro-canonical partition function is given strictly in terms of the Poincaré generators of an interacting N-particle system both in the inertial and non-inertial rest frames. The non-relativistic limit allows a definition of both the inertial and non-inertial micro-canonical ensemble strictly in terms of the Galilei generators. Also the one-particle relativistic distribution f…
In an ideal test of the equivalence principle, the test masses fall in a common inertial frame. A real experiment is affected by gravity gradients, which introduce systematic errors by coupling to initial kinematic differences between the test masses. We demonstrate a method that reduces the sensitivity of a dual-species atom interferometer to initial kinematics by using a frequency shift of the mirror pulse to create an effective inertial frame for both atomic species. This suppresses the gravity-gradient-induced dependence of the differential phase on initial kinematic differences by a facto…
We introduce a family of relativistic non-rigid non-inertial frames as a gauge fixing of the description of N positive energy particles in the framework of parametrized Minkowski theories. Then we define a multi-temporal quantization scheme in which the particles are quantized, but not the gauge variables describing the non-inertial frames: {\it they are considered as c-number generalized times}. We study the coupled Schroedinger-like equations produced by the first class constraints and we show that there is {\it a physical scalar product independent both from time and generalized times and a…
The appearance of the inertial vacuum state in Rindler frame has been extensively studied in the literature, both from the point of view of QFT developed using Rindler foliation and using the response of an Unruh-Dewitt Detector (UDD). In comparison, less attention has been devoted to the study of inertial non-vacuum states when viewed from the Rindler frame. We provide a comprehensive study of this issue in this paper. We first present a general formalism describing characterization of an arbitrary inertial state when described using (i) an arbitrary foliation and (ii) the response of UDD mov…
The special relativistic test theory of Mansouri and Sexl is sketched. Theories based on different clock synchronisations are found to be equivalent to special relativity, as regards experimental results. The conventionality of clock synchronisation is shown not to hold, by means of an example, in a simple accelerated system and through the principle of equivalence in gravitational fields, especially when the metric is not static. Experimental implications on very precise clock synchronisation on earth are discussed.
Slowly rotating collapsing spherical shells have flat spaces inside and the inertial frames there rotate at omega_s(t) relative to infinity. As first shown by Lindblom & Brill the inertial axes within the shell rotate rigidly without time delays from one point to another. Although the rotation rate of the inertial axes is changing the axes are inertial so, relative to them, there is neither an omega dot_s times r (Euler) fictitious force nor any other. However, Euler and other fictitious forces arise in the frame which is at rest with respect to infinity. An observer at the center who looks in…
We give a critical analysis of the conceptual foundations of special relativity. We formulate a simple operational criterion for distinguishing between noninertial and inertial frames which is introduced prior to geometry. We associate the concept of maximal velocity with the existence of an upper bound for a set of rates of movers which travel in the same direction. We define the standard scale for reading the time flow. We refine the treatment of both Einstein's postulates, the principle of relativity and constancy of the velocity of light. The proposed ``reconstruction'' of the geometry of …
We discuss the non-relativistic limit of quantum field theory in an inertial frame, in the Rindler frame and in the presence of a weak gravitational field, highlighting and clarifying several subtleties. We study the following topics: (a) While the action for a relativistic free particle is invariant under the Lorentz transformation, the corresponding action for a non-relativistic free particle is not invariant under the Galilean transformation, but picks up extra contributions at the end points. This leads to an extra phase in the non-relativistic wave function under a Galilean transformation…
We investigate inertial frames in the absence of Lorentz invariance, reconsidering the usual group structure implied by the relativity principle. We abandon the relativity principle, discarding the group structure for the transformations between inertial frames, while requiring these transformations to be at least linear (to preserve homogeneity). In theories with a preferred frame (aether), the set of transformations between inertial frames forms a groupoid/pseudogroup instead of a group, a characteristic essential to evading the von Ignatowsky theorems. In order to understand the dynamics, w…
We analyze the entanglement between two modes of a free Dirac field as seen by two relatively accelerated parties. The entanglement is degraded by the Unruh effect and asymptotically reaches a non-vanishing minimum value in the infinite acceleration limit. This means that the state always remains entangled to a degree and can be used in quantum information tasks, such as teleportation, between parties in relative uniform acceleration. We analyze our results from the point of view afforded by the phenomenon of entanglement sharing and in terms of recent results in the area of multi-qubit comple…
In the framework of General Relativity we develop a method for analysis of the operation of the optical position meters in their photodetectors proper reference frames. These frames are non-inertial in general due to the action of external fluctuative forces on meters test masses, including detectors. For comparison we also perform the calculations in the laboratory (globally inertial) reference frame and demonstrate that for certain optical schemes laboratory-based analysis results in unmeasurable quantities, in contrast to the detector-based analysis. We also calculate the response of the si…
We elucidate the dynamics of a thin spherical material shell with a tangential pressure, using a new approach. This is both simpler than the traditional method of extrinsic curvature junction conditions (which we also employ), and suggests an expression for a `gravitational potential energy' of the shell. Such a shell, if slowly spinning, can rotationally drag the inertial frames within it through a finite angle as it collapses and rebounds from a minimum radius. Rebounding `spherical' and cylindrical pulses of rotating gravitational waves were studied previously. Here we calculate their angul…
Static observers in curved spacetimes may interpret their proper acceleration as the opposite of a local gravitational field (in the Newtonian sense). Based on this interpretation and motivated by the equivalence principle, we are led to investigate congruences of timelike curves in Minkowski spacetime whose acceleration field coincides with the acceleration field of static observers of curved spaces. The congruences give rise to non-inertial frames that are examined. Specifically we find, based on the locality principle, the embedding of simultaneity hypersurfaces adapted to the non-inertial …
The role of non-inertial frames in a class of models of general relativity is clarified by means of Dirac's theory of constraints. The identification of a York canonical basis allows to give the interpretation of the gauge variables as generalized inertial effects and to identify the Dirac observables of the gravitational field with generalized tidal effects. York time is the gauge variable controlling the clock synchronization convention. Differently from special relativity, the instantaneous 3-spaces are dynamically determined.
By using the 3+1 point of view and parametrized Minkowski theories we develop the theory of {\it non-inertial} frames in Minkowski space-time. The transition from a non-inertial frame to another one is a gauge transformation connecting the respective notions of instantaneous 3-space (clock synchronization convention) and of the 3-coordinates inside them. As a particular case we get the extension of the inertial rest-frame instant form of dynamics to the non-inertial rest-frame one. We show that every isolated system can be described as an external decoupled non-covariant canonical center of ma…
Spin-1/2 particles can be used to study inertial and gravitational effects by means of interferometers, particle accelerators, and ultimately quantum systems. These studies require, in general, knowledge of the Hamiltonian and of the inertial and gravitational quantum phases. The procedure followed gives both in the low- and high-energy approximations. The latter affords a more consistent treatment of mass at high energies. The procedure is based on general relativity and on a solution of the Dirac equation that is exact to first-order in the metric deviation. Several previously known accelera…
In this work, resolutions will be given for commonly stated problems associated with a model that assumes that space and time are discretized (i.e., atomized). This model is in contrast to the continuous space-time model that is used in all common physical theories and equations -- a model that assumes that spatial coordinates and time are continuous variables. The resolutions to the problems are arrived at, not by proposing any new theories or postulates, but by strictly adhering to: Ernst Mach's principle of non-absolute space, the tenets of logical positivism, quantum mechanics and general …
Three weak gravitational effects associated with the gravitomagnetic fields are taken into account in this paper: (i) we discuss the background Lorentz transformation and gauge transformation in a linearized gravity theory, and obtain the expression for the spin of gravitational field by using the canonical procedure and Noether theorem; (ii) we point out that by using the coordinate transformation from the fixed frame to the rotating frame, it is found that the nature of Mashhoon's spin-rotation coupling is in fact an interaction between the gravitomagnetic moment of a spinning particle and t…
It is shown that the complete description of the propagation of light in a gravitational field and in non-inertial reference frames in general requires an average coordinate and an average proper velocity of light. The need for an average coordinate velocity of light in non-inertial frames is demonstrated by considering the propagation of two vertical light rays in the Einstein elevator (in addition to the horizontal ray originally discussed by Einstein). As an average proper velocity of light is implicitly used in the Shapiro time delay (as shown in the Appendix) it is explicitly derived and …
Principle of Equivalence makes effects of classical gravity vanish in local inertial frames. What role does the Principle of Equivalence play as regards quantum gravitational effects in the local inertial frames? I address this question here from a specific perspective. At mesoscopic scales close to, but somewhat larger than, Planck length one could describe quantum spacetime and matter in terms of an effective geometry. The key feature of such an effective quantum geometry is the existence of a zero-point-length. When we proceed from quantum geometry to quantum matter, the zero-point-length w…
