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arXiv:1106.0280

Relativistic Quantum Information: developments in Quantum Information in general relativistic scenarios

Eduardo Martín-Martínez

Published Jun 1, 2011• 17 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Recently, there has been increased interest in understanding entanglement and quantum communication in black hole spacetimes and in using quantum information techniques to address questions in gravity. Studies on relativistic entanglement show the emergence of conceptually important qualitative differences to a non-relativistic treatment. For instance, entanglement was found to be an observer-dependent property that changes from the perspective of accelerated observers moving in flat spacetime. Relativisitic quantum information theory uses well-known tools coming from quantum information and quantum optics to study quantum effects provoked by gravity to learn information about the spacetime. We can take advantage of our knowledge about quantum correlations and effects produced by the gravitational interaction to set the basis for experimental proposals ultimately aiming at finding corrections due to quantum gravity effects, too mild to be directly observed. This doctoral thesis dissertation summarises most of the research carried out during my PhD on this topic.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.1106.0280

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In this thesis we shall apply techniques from quantum information theory to the problem of measuring the structure of spacetime or equivalently measuring the gravitational field. In turn we will also look at how acceleration may effect quantum information techniques for processing and transmitting information. Measuring the structure of spacetime is a slight abuse of terminology as spacetime structure is not directly observable. We will be investigating the estimation of spacetime structure by making measurements on quantum systems which depend on the spacetime background. The structure of spacetime and the gravitational field will be treated in accordance with Einstein's general theory of relativity. This is currently the most accurately tested classical theory for gravity. It is widely believed that fundamentally, gravity should be treated within the framework of quantum mechanics, just like the other forces of nature. This is yet to be seen experimentally and a theory capable of falsifiable predictions is yet to be found. In this thesis we shall focus on the effects of gravity at the classical level, however we shall treat matter and non-gravitational energy using quantum mechanics. When looking at how gravity effects quantum information we will specifically be focusing on the simple case of acceleration, yet we shall treat it in this relativistic spacetime context. Knowing the structure of spacetime in general relativity amounts to knowing an object called the metric tensor. This object contains all the information about a spacetime. This may include local curvature, for instance around a star or black hole, gravitational radiation coming from a binary pulsar and even the large scale structure of the universe such as the rate of expansion. By performing local experiments one may attempt to extract this information. Fundamentally these experiments will be governed by quantum mechanics, hence the accuracy of the estimation will be fundamentally limited by the statistical nature of quantum theory. In this thesis we shall develop an equation which states just what accuracy one can ultimately achieve when attempting to measure the structure of spacetime. This equation will be shown to be a generalisation of known results for the accuracy to which one can ultimately measure position and momentum as well as time and energy. The result will be applied to a range of relativistic phenomena including acceleration in flat spacetime, the local curvature around a black hole, the amplitude of a gravitational wave and the expansion of the universe in a cosmological model. Following the use of quantum information theory to investigate gravity we shall look at how acceleration can effect quantum information. Firstly we shall see how quantum entanglement can be created and stored between two optical cavities when one is uniformly accelerating. This is in contrast to a number of results which predict that entanglement will be lost in the presence of acceleration. This loss of entanglement is predicted due to an as yet unobserved phenomena known as the Unruh effect. The Unruh effect states that an observer uniformly accelerating will see a thermal distribution of particles even if an inertial observer will see no particles at all. We will show how the use of optical cavities can prevent this effect from causing problems both for the storage and creation of entanglement. Finally we shall look at how a particular quantum detection scheme can be employed in the presence of acceleration. Our technique will emphasis the importance of locality, that is the localisation of physics in spacetime. We will also show how some commonly used approximations used to study the Unruh effect, can be avoided with our new formulation.
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This thesis collects my own and collaborative work I have been involved with finding localised systems in quantum field theory that are useful for quantum information. It draws from many well established physical theories such as quantum field theory in curved spacetimes, quantum optics and Gaussian state quantum information. The results are split between three chapters. For the first results, we set-up the basic framework for working with quantum fields confined to cavities. By considering the real Klein-Gordon field, we describe how to model the non-uniform motion of a rigid cavity through spacetime. We employ the use of Bogoliubov transformations to describe the effects of changing acceleration. The second set of results investigate how the Dirac field can be confined to a cavity for quantum information purposes. By again considering Bogoliubov transformations, we thoroughly investigate how the entanglement shared between two cavities is affected by non-uniform motion. It is shown that different types of Dirac field states are more robust against motion than others. The final results look at using our second notion of localisation, Unruh- DeWitt detectors. We investigate how allowing for a "non-point-like" spatial profile of the Unruh-DeWitt detector affects how it interacts with a quantum field around it. By engineering suitable detector-field interactions, we use techniques from symplectic geometry to compute the dynamics of a quantum state beyond commonly used perturbation theory. There is also a conclusions chapter at the end of the thesis which summarises the results presented and suggestions of possible new directions of research in relativistic quantum information are made.