Abstract A long-standing debate on Gibbons–Hawking (GH) decoherence centers on its obscure thermal nature. In this work, we investigate the robustness of quantum Fisher information (QFI) and local quantum uncertainty (LQU) in the presence of GH decoherence, using free-falling Unruh–DeWitt (UDW) detectors in de Sitter spacetime (dS-ST). The UDW detectors interact with a massless scalar field in dS-ST and are modeled as open quantum systems, with the field serving as the environment, described by a master equation that outlines their evolution. Our analysis investigates the roles of energy spacing, GH temperature, initial state preparation, and various de Sitter-invariant vacuum sectors on the optimization of QFI and LQU. We find that the optimal values of QFI and LQU depend on the selected de Sitter-invariant vacuum sector and increase with larger energy spacing. Our findings reveal that QFI exhibits resilience to GH decoherence, maintaining a pronounced local peak across a broader range of parameters. This robustness can be further enhanced through strategic initial state preparation and increased energy spacing, resulting in a higher maximum QFI value even under significant environmental decoherence. Our results underscore the critical role of GH thermality in governing QFI and LQU, offering valuable insights for advances in relativistic quantum metrology (RQM).
Abstract A long-standing debate on Gibbons–Hawking (GH) decoherence centers on its obscure thermal nature. In this work, we investigate the robustness of quantum Fisher information (QFI) and local quantum uncertainty (LQU) in the presence of GH decoherence, using free-falling Unruh–DeWitt (UDW) detectors in de Sitter spacetime (dS-ST). The UDW detectors interact with a massless scalar field in dS-ST and are modeled as open quantum systems, with the field serving as the environment, described by a master equation that outlines their evolution. Our analysis investigates the roles of energy spacing, GH temperature, initial state preparation, and various de Sitter-invariant vacuum sectors on the optimization of QFI and LQU. We find that the optimal values of QFI and LQU depend on the selected de Sitter-invariant vacuum sector and increase with larger energy spacing. Our findings reveal that QFI exhibits resilience to GH decoherence, maintaining a pronounced local peak across a broader range of parameters. This robustness can be further enhanced through strategic initial state preparation and increased energy spacing, resulting in a higher maximum QFI value even under significant environmental decoherence. Our results underscore the critical role of GH thermality in governing QFI and LQU, offering valuable insights for advances in relativistic quantum metrology (RQM).
A long-standing debate on Unruh effect is about its obscure thermal nature. In this Letter, we use quantum Fisher information (QFI) as an effective probe to explore the thermal nature of Unruh effect from both local and global perspectives. By resolving the full dynamics of UDW detector, we find that the QFI is a time-evolving function of detector's energy gap, Unruh temperature TU and particularities of background field, e.g., mass and spacetime dimensionality. We show that the asymptotic QFI whence detector arrives its equilibrium is solely determined by TU, demonstrating the global side of Unruh thermality alluded by the KMS condition. We also show that the local side of Unruh effect, i.e., the different ways for the detector to approach the same thermal equilibrium, is encoded in the corresponding time-evolution of the QFI. In particular, we find that with massless scalar background the QFI has unique monotonicity in n=3 dimensional spacetime, and becomes non-monotonous for n≠3 models where a local peak value exists at early time and for finite acceleration, indicating an enhanced precision of estimation on Unruh temperature at a relative low acceleration can be achieved. Once the field acquiring mass, the related QFI becomes significantly robust against the Unruh decoherence in the sense that its local peak sustains for a very long time. While coupling to a more massive background, the persistence can even be strengthened and the QFI possesses a larger maximal value. Such robustness of QFI can surely facilitate any practical quantum estimation task.
A bstract Relativistic quantum metrology studies the maximal achievable precision for estimating a physical quantity when both quantum and relativistic effects are taken into account. We study the relativistic quantum metrology of temperature in (3+1)-dimensional de Sitter and anti-de Sitter space. Using Unruh-DeWitt detectors coupled to a massless scalar field as probes and treating them as open quantum systems, we compute the Fisher information for estimating temperature. We investigate the effect of acceleration in dS, and the effect of boundary condition in AdS. We find that the phenomenology of the Fisher information in the two spacetimes can be unified, and analyze its dependence on temperature, detector energy gap, curvature, interaction time, and detector initial state. We then identify estimation strategies that maximize the Fisher information and therefore the precision of estimation.
Quantum thermometry based on single-qubit sensor configurations enables the precise estimation of the temperature of a cosmological Anti-de Sitter (AdS) spacetime. In this work, we characterize the achievable estimation accuracy using the Quantum Fisher Information (QFI) and the associated quantum signal-to-noise ratio. For the first time, we introduce an ancillary Unruh-DeWitt detector between the sensor and the thermal bath, enhancing thermometric sensitivity by channeling temperature-dependent information into the probe qubit's coherence. We examine how detector acceleration in AdS space and the choice of boundary conditions modify the probe's thermal sensitivity. Despite the differing geometries, a unified phenomenology emerges: we characterize the scaling of the QFI with respect to temperature, detector energy gap, spacetime curvature, and interaction time. Finally, we identify optimal state preparation and measurement strategies that maximize the QFI, thereby establishing the fundamental limits of precision for non-Markovian sensing in curved spacetime.
Abstract Relativistic quantum metrology is the study of optimal measurement procedures within systems that have both quantum and relativistic components. Here we use Unruh-DeWitt detectors coupled to a massless scalar field as probes of thermal parameters in different spacetimes via a relativistic quantum metrology analysis. We consider both (2 + 1)-dimensional anti-de Sitter and BTZ black hole spacetimes. We compute the Fisher information to identify characteristics of the black hole spacetime and to compare it to a uniformly accelerating detector in anti-de Sitter space. We find the dependence of the Fisher information on temperature, detector energy gap, black hole mass, interaction time, and the initial state of the detector. We identify strategies that maximize the Fisher information and therefore the precision of estimation.
Quantum Fisher information (QFI) associated with local metrology has been used to parameter estimation in open quantum systems. In this work, we calculated the QFI for a moving Unruh–DeWitt detector coupled with massless scalar fields in n-dimensional spacetime, and analyzed the behavior of QFI with various parameters, such as the dimension of spacetime, evolution time, and Unruh temperature. We discovered that the QFI of state parameter decreases monotonically from 1 to 0 over time. Additionally, we noted that the QFI for small evolution times is several orders of magnitude higher than the QFI for long evolution times. We also found that the value of QFI decreases at first and then stabilizes as the Unruh temperature increases. It was observed that the QFI depends on initial state parameter θ, and Fθ is the maximum for θ = 0 or θ = π, Fϕ is the maximum for θ = π/2. We also obtain that the maximum value of QFI for state parameters varies for different spacetime dimensions with the same evolution time.
The degradation of quantum resources due to environmental noise is a fundamental challenge in quantum information science. In relativistic settings, this noise is intrinsically linked to vacuum fluctuations. Here, we investigate this connection using a model of two Unruh-DeWitt detectors interacting with a scalar field in Minkowski spacetime. Specifically, we focus on Bell nonlocality, quantum coherence, the nonlocal advantage of quantum coherence, and measured uncertainty, examining their dependence on the detector-field energy ratio, the inter-detector distance, and the initial state parameter. Notably, our central finding is that vacuum fluctuations are the primary mechanism of decoherence. Moreover, while spatial separation induces decoherence, all quantum resources converge to a non-zero steady state at large distances, confirming the robustness of nonlocality. These insights provide a deeper understanding of quantumness in a relativistic framework and may contribute to the ongoing discussion on the black hole information paradox.