We show under what conditions an accelerated detector (e.g., an atom/ion/molecule) thermalizes while interacting with the vacuum state of a quantum field in a setup where the detector's acceleration alternates sign across multiple optical cavities. We show (non-perturbatively) in what regimes the probe `forgets' that it is traversing cavities and thermalizes to a temperature proportional to its acceleration. Then we analyze in detail how this thermalization relates to the renowned Unruh effect. Finally, we use these results to propose an experimental testbed for the direct detection of the Unruh effect at relatively low probe speeds and accelerations, potentially orders of magnitude below previous proposals.
We study, in the framework of open quantum systems, the entanglement dynamics for a quantum system composed of two uniformly accelerated Unruh-Dewitt detectors interacting with a bath of massive scalar fields in the Minkowski vacuum. We find that the entanglement evolution for the quantum system coupled with massive fields is always slower compared with that of the one coupled with massless fields, and this time-delay effect brought by the field being massive can however be counteracted by a large enough acceleration, in contrast to the case of a static quantum system in a thermal bath, where …
In this paper, we consider the decoherence patterns of a topological qubit made of two Majorana zero modes in the generic linear and circular motions in the Minkowski spacetime. We show that the reduced dynamics is exact without Markov approximation. Our results imply that the acceleration will cause thermalization as expected by Unruh effect. However, for the short-time scale, we find the rate of decoherence is anti-correlated with the acceleration, as kind of decoherence impedance. This is in fact related to the "anti-Unruh" phenomenon previously found by studying the transition probability …
We investigate the fate of initial entanglement between two accelerated detectors with respect to an observer attached to one of the detectors. Both $(1+1)$ and $(1+3)$ spacetime dimensions are being considered here, with the detectors interacting with real massless scalar fields through monopole terms. The investigation is being performed for both non-thermal as well as thermal fields. In general, irrespective of the detectors moving in the same Rindler wedge or opposite wedges, increase of the field temperature reduces the initial entanglement. In all situations, degradation of entanglement …
We show how the use of entanglement can enhance the precision of the detection of the Unruh effect with an accelerated probe. We use the Unruh-DeWitt model of a two-level atom interacting relativistically with a quantum field and treat the atom as an open quantum system to derive the master equation governing its evolution. By means of quantum state discrimination, we detect the accelerated motion of the atom by examining its time evolving state. It turns out that the optimal strategy for the detection of the Unruh effect, to which the accelerated atom is sensitive, involves letting the atom-t…
We investigate the influence of Unruh radiation on matter-wave interferometry experiments using neutral objects modeled as dielectric spheres. The Unruh effect leads to a loss of coherence through momentum diffusion. This is a fundamental source of decoherence that affects all objects having electromagnetic interactions. However, the effect is not large enough to prevent the observation of interference for objects of any size, even when the path separation is larger than the size of the object. When the acceleration in the interferometer arms is large, inertial tidal forces will disrupt the ma…
We study the effects of motion for an Unruh-DeWitt detector, modeled as a two-level system, on the amount of coherence extracted, when it interacts with a massless scalar coherent field in 1+1 Minkowski spacetime. We observe that compared to a detector at rest, for certain values of the initial energy of the field and the interaction duration, the amount is larger for both a detector moving with a constant speed or uniform acceleration. This "swelling" of coherence, which becomes more intense for increasing values of velocity or acceleration, is mostly observed for short durations, when the en…
Relativistic effects on the precision of quantum metrology for particle detectors, such as two-level atoms are studied. The quantum Fisher information is used to estimate the phase sensitivity of atoms in non-inertial motions or in gravitational fields. The Unruh-DeWitt model is applicable to the investigation of the dynamics of a uniformly accelerated atom weakly coupled to a massless scalar vacuum field. When a measuring device is in the same relativistic motion as the atom, the dynamical behavior of quantum Fisher information as a function of Rindler proper time are obtained. It is found ou…
We investigate the effects of relative motion on entanglement harvesting by considering a pair of Unruh-Dewitt detectors moving at arbitrary, but independent and constant velocities, both linearly interacting with the vacuum scalar field. Working within the weak coupling approximation, we find that the Negativity is a (non-elementary) function of the relative velocity of the detectors, as well as their energy gaps and minimal separation. We find parameter regions where Negativity increases with velocity up to a maximum and then decreases, reaching zero at some sublight velocity. At any given r…
We study the properties of the transition probability and entanglement harvesting phenomenon for circularly accelerated detectors locally interacting with massless scalar fields. The dependence of the transition probability on the parameters associated with the circular motion is first analyzed in detail. By a cross-comparison with the situation of the uniformly accelerated motion, we obtain that the transition probability and the possible thermalization behavior for detectors rotating with an extremely large circular radius are analogous to that for uniformly accelerated detectors, but for a …
We consider entanglement extraction into two two-level Unruh-DeWitt detectors from a vacuum of a neutral massless quantum scalar field in a four-dimensional spacetime, where the general monopole coupling to the scalar field is assumed. Based on the reduced density matrix of the two detectors derived within the perturbation theory, we show that the single copy of the entangled pair of the detectors can be utilized in quantum teleportation even when the detectors are separated acausally, while we observe no violation of the Bell-CHSH inequality. In the case of the Minkowski vacuum, in particular…
In a quantum sense, vacuum is not an empty void but full of virtual particles (fields). It may have long-range properties, be altered, and even undergo phase transitions. It is suggested that long-range properties of a quantum vacuum may be probed by distributing matter over a large spatial volume. Here, we study a simplest example of such, i.e., two uniformly accelerated Unruh-DeWitt detectors which are spatially separated, and examine the inter-detector interaction energy arising from the coupling between the detectors and fluctuating fields to see if novel phenomena related to the long-rang…
We study the dynamics of quantum coherence under Unruh thermal noise and seek under which condition the coherence can be frozen in a relativistic setting. We find that the frozen condition is either (i) the initial state is prepared as a incoherence state, or (ii) the detectors have no interaction with the external field. That is to say, the decoherence of detectors' quantum state is irreversible under the influence of thermal noise induced by Unruh radiation. It is shown that quantum coherence approaches zero only in the limit of an infinite acceleration, while quantum entanglement could redu…
We investigate the effects of field temperature $T^{(f)}$ on the entanglement harvesting between two uniformly accelerated detectors. For their parallel motion, the thermal nature of fields does not produce any entanglement, and therefore, the outcome is the same as the non-thermal situation. On the contrary, $T^{(f)}$ affects entanglement harvesting when the detectors are in anti-parallel motion, i.e., when detectors $A$ and $B$ are in the right and left Rindler wedges, respectively. While for $T^{(f)}=0$ entanglement harvesting is possible for all values of $A$'s acceleration $a_A$, in the p…
We investigate the quantum radiation produced by an Unruh-De Witt detector in a uniformly accelerating motion coupled to the vacuum fluctuations. Quantum radiation is nonvanishing, which is consistent with the previous calculation by Lin and Hu [Phys. Rev. D 73, 124018 (2006)]. We infer that this quantum radiation from the Unruh-De Witt detector is generated by the nonlocal correlation of the Minkowski vacuum state, which has its origin in the entanglement of the state between the left and the right Rindler wedges.
It is commonly believed that the fidelity of quantum teleportation using localized quantum objects with one party or both accelerated in vacuum would be degraded due to the heat-up by the Unruh effect. In this paper we point out that the Unruh effect is not the whole story in accounting for all the relativistic effects in quantum teleportation. First, there could be degradation of fidelity by a common field environment even when both quantum objects are in inertial motion. Second, relativistic effects entering the description of the dynamics such as frame dependence, time dilation, and Doppler…
We discuss different physical effects related to the uniform acceleration of atoms in vacuum, in the framework of quantum electrodynamics. We first investigate the van der Waals/Casimir-Polder dispersion and resonance interactions between two uniformly accelerated atoms in vacuum. We show that the atomic acceleration significantly affects the van der Waals force, yielding a different scaling of the interaction with the interatomic distance and an explicit time dependence of the interaction energy. We argue how these results could allow for an indirect detection of the Unruh effect through disp…
We study the quantum Fisher information (QFI) of acceleration, in the open quantum systems, for a two-level atom with the circular motion coupled to a massless scalar field in the Minkowski vacuum without and with a reflecting boundary in the ultra-relativistic limit. As we amplify $a$, the saturation time decreases for $θ\neqπ$, but first increases and then decreases for $θ=π$. Without a boundary, there exists a peak value of QFI with a certain time. The QFI varies with the initial state parameter $θ$, and firstly takes peak value in the ground state of the atom. The variation of QFI with res…
Among various uncertainty relations, the profound fine-grained uncertainty relation is used to distinguish the uncertainty inherent in obtaining any combination of outcomes for different measurements. In this Letter, we explore this uncertainty relation in relativistic regime. For observer undergoes an uniform acceleration who is immersed in an Unruh thermal bath, we show that the uncertainty bound is dependent on the acceleration parameter and choice of Unruh modes. We find that the measurements in mutually unbiased bases, sharing same uncertainty bound in inertial frame, could be distinguish…
Tunable-Size Unruh-DeWitt Detector in a Multimode Cavity
Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Innsbruck（因斯布鲁克大学理论物理研究所）；Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information, Austrian Academy of Sciences（奥地利科学院量子光学与量子信息研究所）；Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University（冲绳科学技术大学院大学）；Institute of Physics, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University（玛丽亚·居里-斯克沃多夫斯卡大学物理研究所）
In this Letter, the dynamic behavior of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) steering and the redistribution of EPR steering under a relativistic framework are investigated. Specifically, we explore the scenario that particle A hold by Alice is in a flat space-time and another particle B by Bob entangled with A is in a non-inertial framework. The results show that EPR steering from Alice to Bob is dramatically destroyed by Unruh effect caused by the acceleration of Bob. Besides, EPR steering has an asymmetry property, and EPR steering asymmetry increases with the growing intensity of Unruh effect, im…
We consider an Unruh-DeWitt detector modeled as a harmonic oscillator that is coupled to a massless quantum scalar field in the (2+1)-dimensional Minkowski spacetime. We treat the detector as an open quantum system and employ a quantum Langevin equation to describe its time evolution, with the field, which is characterized by a frequency-independent spectral density, acting as a stochastic force. We investigate a point-like detector moving with constant acceleration through the Minkowski vacuum and an inertial one immersed in a thermal reservoir at the Unruh temperature, exploring the implicat…
The quantum channel between two particle detectors provides a prototype framework for the study of wireless quantum communication via relativistic quantum fields. In this article we calculate the classical channel capacity between two Unruh-DeWitt detectors arising from couplings within the perturbative regime. To this end, we identify the detector states which achieve maximal signal strength. We use these results to investigate the impact of relativistic effects on signaling between detectors in inertial and uniformly accelerated motion which communicate via a massless field in Minkowski spac…
We show that the operational definition of non-classicality of a quantum state depends on the motion of the observer. We use the relativistic Unruh-DeWitt detector model to witness nonclassicality of the probed field state. It turns out that the witness based on the properties of the P-representation of the quantum state depends on the trajectory of the detector. Inertial and noninertial motion of the device have qualitatively different impact on the performance of the witness.
We study the accelerated motion of mirrors and the photonic Unruh effect. The solutions of Maxwell's equations with appropriate boundary conditions in Rindler coordinates are found. The canonical quantization of the field is carried out properly. Important consequences arise from the presence of mirrors or polarizers. It is shown that a single reflective surface produces frequency quantization due to Dirichlet conditions applied to the $-1/(αx)^2$ anomalous potential for non-inertial observers. The number of photons per accelerated mode is estimated via Hankel functions.
Quantum entanglement as the one of the most general quantum resources, can be quantified by von Neumann entropy. However, as we know, the von Neumann entropy is only statistical quantity or operator, it therefore has fluctuation. The quantum fluctuation of entanglement (QFE) between Unruh-Dewitt detector modeled by a two-level atom is investigated in a relativistic setting. The Unruh radiation and quantum fluctuation effects affect the precise measurement of quantum entanglement. Inspired by this we present how the relativistic motion effects QFE for two entangled Unruh-Dewitt detectors when o…
Acceleration radiation - or Unruh radiation - the thermal radiation observed by an ever accelerating observer or detector, although having similarities to Hawking radiation, so far has proved extremely challenging to observe experimentally. One recent suggestion is that, in the presence of a mirror, constant acceleration of an atom in its ground state can excite the atom while at the same time cause it to emit a photon in an Unruh-type process. In this work we show that merely by shaking the atom, in simple harmonic motion for example, can have the same effect. We calculate the transition rate…
