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arXiv:2603.16084

Geometric phase for an accelerated two-level atom in AdS spacetime

Linghui Qiu, Jialin Zhang, Hongwei Yu

quant-phhep-thSubmitted Mar 17, 2026• Announced Mar 18, 2026• Revised Aug 19, 2026 (v2)
v1 · Mar 17, 2026v2 · Aug 19, 2026
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Abstract

We have investigated the geometric phase acquired by a uniformly accelerated Unruh-DeWitt detector coupled to vacuum fluctuations of a massless conformal scalar field in anti-de Sitter (AdS) spacetime. Using the open-quantum-system formalism, we calculate the phase under three boundary conditions (Dirichlet, transparent, and Neumann) imposed on the field at the AdS boundary. Our findings reveal a sharp distinction between subcritical and supercritical accelerations. For subcritical accelerations, the detector evolves effectively as an isolated system, and the geometric phase is independent of both the AdS radius and the acceleration. For supercritical accelerations, however, topology-acceleration-induced phase corrections emerge and display pronounced boundary-condition dependence. When the AdS radius is smaller than the detector's proper wavelength, the magnitude of the correction at large accelerations follows the ordering Neumann$>$transparent$>$Dirichlet. Moreover, over a finite interval of the detector's weight parameter, both Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions produce a richer peak structure in the phase correction than the transparent case, with the detailed pattern governed by the competition between the acceleration and the detector's energy gap. Finally, for transparent boundary conditions in the supercritical regime, the AdS phase correction closely resembles its de Sitter counterpart.

Journal reference
Physical Review D 114, 045005 (2026)
DOI
10.1103/41xy-j2lh
Comments
21 pages,4 figures

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We have investigated the geometric phase acquired by a uniformly accelerated Unruh-DeWitt detector coupled to vacuum fluctuations of a massless conformal scalar field in anti-de Sitter (AdS) spacetime. Using the open-quantum-system formalism, we calculate the phase under three boundary conditions (Dirichlet, transparent, and Neumann) imposed on the field at the AdS boundary. Our findings reveal a sharp distinction between subcritical and supercritical accelerations. For subcritical accelerations, the detector evolves effectively as an isolated system, and the geometric phase is independent of both the AdS radius and the acceleration. For supercritical accelerations, however, topology-acceleration-induced phase corrections emerge and display pronounced boundary-condition dependence. When the AdS radius is smaller than the detector's proper wavelength, the magnitude of the correction at large accelerations follows the ordering Neumann>>>transparent>>>Dirichlet. Moreover, over a finite interval of the detector's weight parameter, both Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions produce a richer peak structure in the phase correction than the transparent case, with the detailed pattern governed by the competition between the acceleration and the detector's energy gap. Finally, for transparent boundary conditions in the supercritical regime, the AdS phase correction closely resembles its de Sitter counterpart.
Abstract We examine in (2+1)-dimensional anti-de Sitter (AdS) space the phenomena of entanglement harvesting — the process in which a pair of detectors (two-level atoms) extract entanglement from a quantum field through local interactions with the field. We begin by reviewing the Unruh-DeWitt detector and its interaction with a real scalar field in the vacuum state, as well as the entanglement harvesting protocol in general. We then examine how the entanglement harvested by a pair of such detectors depends on their spacetime trajectory, separation, spacetime curvature, and boundary conditions satisfied by the field. The harvested entanglement is interpreted as an indicator of field entanglement between the localized regions where the detectors interact with the field, and thus this investigation allows us to probe indirectly the entanglement structure of the AdS vacuum. We find an island of separability for specific values of the detectors’ energy gap and separation at intermediate values of the AdS length for which entanglement harvesting is not possible; an analogous phenomena is observed in AdS4, to which we compare and contrast our results. In the process we examine how the transition probability of a single detector, as a proxy for local fluctuations of the field, depends on spacetime curvature, its location in AdS space, and boundary conditions satisfied by the field.
In open quantum systems, we study the geometric phases acquired for a two-level atom coupled to a bath of fluctuating vacuum massless scalar fields due to linear acceleration and circular motion without and with a boundary. In free space, as we amplify acceleration, the geometric phase acquired purely due to linear acceleration case firstly is smaller than the circular acceleration case in the ultrarelativistic limit for the initial atomic state $\ensuremath{\theta}\ensuremath{\in}(0,\frac{\ensuremath{\pi}}{2})\ensuremath{\cup}(\frac{\ensuremath{\pi}}{2},\ensuremath{\pi})$, then equals to the circular acceleration case in a certain acceleration, and finally, is larger than the circular acceleration case. The spontaneous transition rates show a similar feature. This result is different from the case of a bath of fluctuating vacuum electromagnetic fields that has been studied. Considering the initial atomic state $\ensuremath{\theta}\ensuremath{\in}(0,\ensuremath{\pi})$, we find that the geometric phase acquired purely due to linear acceleration always equals to the circular acceleration case for the certain acceleration. The feature implies that, in a certain condition, one can simulate the case of the uniformly accelerated two-level atom by studying the properties of the two-level atom in circular motion. Adding a reflecting boundary, we observe that a larger value of a geometric phase can be obtained compared to the absence of a boundary. Besides, the geometric phase fluctuates along zzz, and the maximum of geometric phase is closer to the boundary for a larger acceleration. We also find that geometric phases can be acquired purely due to the linear acceleration case and circular acceleration case with $\ensuremath{\theta}\ensuremath{\in}(0,\ensuremath{\pi})$ for a smaller zzz.
We study the weak coupling of two identical two-level atoms to a four-dimensional massless conformally coupled scalar field and compare three settings with the same local temperature but different physical origins: comoving atoms in the Bunch--Davies vacuum of de Sitter spacetime, transversely separated uniformly accelerated atoms in the Minkowski vacuum, and static atoms in a Minkowski thermal bath. We first derive the two-atom cross spectra in the three settings and then obtain the single-atom local spectra uniformly from the zero-separation limit. When a=Ha=Ha=H and β=2π/Hβ=2π/Hβ=2π/H, the complete local Wightman kernels and local spectra are identical in all three cases. At finite separation, a genuine thermal bath produces a $\sinc(ΩL)$ spatial factor, whereas de Sitter spacetime and the transversely accelerated vacuum produce a hyperbolic geometric factor. In the long-distance limit, the cross correlations in de Sitter spacetime and the transversely accelerated vacuum decay as L−2L^{-2}L−2, whereas those in the Minkowski thermal bath decay only as L−1L^{-1}L−1. The de Sitter and transversely accelerated vacuum cross spectra coincide when a=Ha=Ha=H and the separations are instantaneously matched. For a fixed experimental setup, the physical separation between the two comoving atoms in de Sitter space evolves with cosmic expansion, whereas the pulled-back cross correlations in the uniformly accelerated and thermal Minkowski configurations are stationary.
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.
A bstract Quantum Field Theories (QFTs) in Anti-de Sitter (AdS) spacetime are often strongly coupled when the radius of AdS is large, and few methods are available to study them. In this work, we develop a Hamiltonian truncation method to compute the energy spectrum of QFTs in two-dimensional AdS. The infinite volume of constant timeslices of AdS leads to divergences in the energy levels. We propose a simple prescription to obtain finite physical energies and test it with numerical diagonalization in several models: the free massive scalar field, ϕ 4 theory, Lee-Yang and Ising field theory. Along the way, we discuss spontaneous symmetry breaking in AdS and derive a compact formula for perturbation theory in quantum mechanics at arbitrary order. Our results suggest that all conformal boundary conditions for a given theory are connected via bulk renormalization group flows in AdS.
Within the open quantum system formalism, using the Markovian process, we investigate the {\it quantum speed limit time} (QSLT) of a uniformly accelerated Unruh-DeWitt detector, interacting with the massless real scaler field. Three specific scenarios are being studied -- the field is in Minkowski spacetime (i) without any reflecting boundary but at a finite temperature, (ii) presence of single boundary with the detector is accelerating parallel to the plane of it, and (iii) presence of two boundaries with the detector is moving between them along the parallel direction. Interestingly, the behavior of QSLT appears to be very distinctive around a particular value of aaa. For the first scenario QSLT shows very noticeable change around a specific aaa and the required value of aaa corresponding to this change decreases with the increase of field temperature. In the other two scenarios, QSLT starts to fluctuate after a critical value of aaa. If we further increase aaa, more vigorous fluctuation emerges. The value of aaa required for the starting of the oscillation is much less for the double boundary case compared to the single boundary. Taking into account specific values of the distance between the boundaries and the detector's frequency, we estimate that the critical value of aaa can be as low as ∼105m/s2\sim 10^5 \text{m}/\text{s}^2∼105m/s2 for the double boundary situation. We argue that such a distinctive feature in QSLT can be a fruitful tool to diagnose the Unruh effect.