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arXiv:2305.17487 · Journal of High Energy Physics

Accelerating Unruh-DeWitt detectors coupled with a spinor field

Dawei Wu, Shan-Chang Tang, Yu Shi

Published Jun 27, 2023• 4 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Abstract The behavior of accelerating Unruh-DeWitt detectors coupled with a spinor field in (3+1)-dimensional spacetime is investigated. For a single point-like detector with Gaussian switching function, the transition probability increases with the acceleration and thus the antiUnruh effect effect cannot occur. Due to the spinor structure of the Dirac field, UV divergences are encountered in the calculation of the entanglement between the detectors. After introducing some UV cutoff Λ, the negativity of detectors is shown to behave nonmonotonically with respect to the acceleration. Besides, the negativity increases with the cutoff Λ and decreases with the distance between the detectors. The mutual information between the two detectors is also discussed.

DOI
10.1007/jhep06(2023)190

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Abstract The behavior of accelerating Unruh-DeWitt detectors coupled with a spinor field in (3+1)-dimensional spacetime is investigated. For a single point-like detector with Gaussian switching function, the transition probability increases with the acceleration and thus the antiUnruh effect effect cannot occur. Due to the spinor structure of the Dirac field, UV divergences are encountered in the calculation of the entanglement between the detectors. After introducing some UV cutoff Λ, the negativity of detectors is shown to behave nonmonotonically with respect to the acceleration. Besides, the negativity increases with the cutoff Λ and decreases with the distance between the detectors. The mutual information between the two detectors is also discussed.
We investigate the decoherence of an Unruh-DeWitt detector coupled to scalar, electromagnetic, and spinor fields in four-dimensional Minkowski spacetime. By employing the Schwinger-Keldysh influence functional formalism, we derive a universal scaling law relating the decoherence rate to the proper acceleration aaa and the scaling dimension ΔΔΔ of the environmental field operator. By analyzing both sharp (top-hat) and smooth Gaussian switching functions, it is shown that the decoherence rate in the asymptotic long-time limit scales as a2Δ−1a^{2Δ-1}a2Δ−1. This scaling indicates that increasing scaling dimension of the coupling field operators can significantly enhance the decoherence, thereby providing a more sensitive probe of the Unruh effect.
A bstract We study two accelerating Unruh-DeWitt detectors coupled linearly or quadratically with a scalar field, by using an approach different from previous ones. We use Rindler frame, and integrate over the spacetime coordinates before over the momenta. In this way, the divergent problem previously encountered is avoided. We show that entanglement between the detectors can be created by coupling with the field, and is divergent only in the limit that the two detectors coincide in spacetime. For linear coupling, entanglement increases monotonically with the decrease of acceleration, as previously found, while for quadratic coupling, entanglement behaves non-monotonically, as noted for the first time.
A bstract We investigate the decoherence of an Unruh-DeWitt detector coupled to scalar, electromagnetic, and spinor fields in four-dimensional Minkowski spacetime. By employing the Schwinger-Keldysh influence functional formalism, we derive a universal scaling law relating the decoherence rate to the proper acceleration a and the scaling dimension ∆ of the environmental field operator. By analyzing both sharp (top-hat) and smooth Gaussian switching functions, it is shown that the decoherence rate in the asymptotic long-time limit scales as a 2∆−1 . This scaling indicates that increasing scaling dimension of the coupling field operators can significantly enhance the decoherence, thereby providing a more sensitive probe of the Unruh effect.
Abstract We explore the quantum coherence between a pair of entangled Unruh–DeWitt detectors, interacting with a quantum field, using a nonperturbative approach in a (3+1)-dimensional Minkowski spacetime with instantaneous switching ( δ\delta δ δ -switching). It is intriguing to observe that for a maximally entangled state, increasing the coupling strength enhances the detectors’ initial quantum coherence while simultaneously causing a monotonic decrease in their initial entanglement. This reveals a remarkable phenomenon: through nonperturbative interactions, entangled Unruh–DeWitt detectors can exhibit a dual effect-amplifying quantum coherence while degrading quantum entanglement. This finding stands in stark contrast to previous studies based on perturbative methods or Gaussian switching functions, which generally concluded that interactions between detectors and the field lead to a simultaneous degradation of quantum coherence and entanglement due to environmental decoherence. Notably, while initially separable detectors successfully harvest quantum coherence from the vacuum, entanglement extraction remains fundamentally prohibited. These contrasting behaviors underscore the fundamental distinction between coherence and entanglement as quantum resources, and highlight their complementary roles in field-detector interactions.
This thesis considers entanglement, an important resource for quantum information processing tasks, while taking into account the theory of relativity. Not only is this a more complete description of quantum information, but it is necessary to fully understand quantum information processing tasks done by systems in arbitrary motion. \n \nIt is shown that accelerated measurements on the vacuum of a free Dirac spinor field results in an entangled state for an inertial observer. The physical mechanism at work is the Davies-Unruh effect. The entanglement produced increases as a function of the acceleration, reaching maximal entanglement in the asymptotic limit of infinite acceleration. \n \nThe dynamics of entanglement between two Unruh-DeWitt detectors, one stationary and the other undergoing non-uniform acceleration, was studied numerically. In the ultraweak coupling limit, the entanglement decreases as a function of time for the parameters considered and decreases faster than if the moving detector had had a uniform acceleration.
In this work, we investigate the interaction between a uniformly accelerated single qubit and a fermionic spinor field. Here we consider both the massless and the massive fermionic spinor fields. The qubit-field interaction occurs over a finite time and was evolved via perturbation theory. This approach yields the transition probability rates, from which we subsequently evaluate the quantum coherence of an Unruh-DeWitt (UDW) detector initially prepared in a qubit state. Our findings reveal that the UDW detector responds more when coupled with the fermionic field, and consequently, quantum coherence (for the fermionic case) degrades much more rapidly when compared to the case of the qubit linearly coupled with the scalar field. Moreover, the analysis suggests that particle mass plays a protective role against Unruh-induced decoherence as the rest mass energy becomes comparable to the detector's energy-level spacing, the detector's excitation probability and response decreases, which leads to the mitigation of quantum coherence degradation in accelerated quantum systems.