We compute the quantum radiation emitted by wavepackets of relativistic single electrons, both at rest and undergoing uniform acceleration in the Minkowski vacuum of the electromagnetic field. We find that the cubic terms in the original nonlinear action of electrodynamics should be considered in obtaining the quantum radiation to the leading order. We show that the quantum radiation from a single-electron wavepacket at rest vanishes exactly. For a uniformly accelerated electron, the quantum radiated power has secular growth in the long-time regime. We demonstrate that this secular growth has a classical interpretation, and argue that the resummed quantum radiation at late times would not diverge. Regarding experimental proposals for the detection of the Unruh effect from the quantum radiation in the `blind spots' of classical radiation we ascertain that quantum corrections in the two blind spots are fully contributed by the transverse deviation correlators, where the dominant contributions are irrelevant to the Unruh effect in electron microscopes.
We compute the quantum radiation emitted by wavepackets of relativistic single electrons, both at rest and undergoing uniform acceleration in the Minkowski vacuum of the electromagnetic field. We find that the cubic terms in the original nonlinear action of electrodynamics should be considered in obtaining the quantum radiation to the leading order. We show that the quantum radiation from a single-electron wavepacket at rest vanishes exactly. For a uniformly accelerated electron, the quantum radiated power has secular growth in the long-time regime. We demonstrate that this secular growth has a classical interpretation, and argue that the resummed quantum radiation at late times would not diverge. Regarding experimental proposals for the detection of the Unruh effect from the quantum radiation in the `blind spots' of classical radiation we ascertain that quantum corrections in the two blind spots are fully contributed by the transverse deviation correlators, where the dominant contributions are irrelevant to the Unruh effect in electron microscopes.
Abstract We have developed a linearized effective theory with quantum mechanical Gaussian wavepacket of a charged relativistic particle coupled to quantum electromagnetic fields at a scale well below the Schwinger limit. Using this effective theory, we study the quantum decoherence of single electrons at rest due to their interactions with electromagnetic vacuum. According to the existing data of electron interference experiments in electron microscopes, the values of the parameters in our effective theory are chosen. With these values, we find that weak decoherence by vacuum fluctuations may have blurred the interference pattern in Ref. [1].
Free quantum field theory in flat space-time is often believed to be well established, holding no surprises. We hope, by the end of this paper, to have demonstrated that surprises still exist. For example, we will show that a uniformly accelerated atom in Minkowski space-time emits entangled photon pairs in a squeezed state which mimics entanglement of the Minkowski vacuum in that the entanglement is between Minkowski modes which are dominantly in opposite causal wedges of the space-time. Similar emission of photon pairs occurs if an atom is held above the black hole event horizon. Namely, a ground-state atom becomes excited by emitting a ``negative'' -energy photon under the horizon and then spontaneously decays back to the ground state by emitting a positive-energy photon outside the horizon, which propagates away from the black hole.
Quantum effects in accelerated frames and gravitational fields have been studied for decades. One of the most influential outcomes is the discovery of thermal radiation from a black hole by Hawking in 1975. Other important discoveries include the Unruh effect, dynamical Casimir effect etc.. Although these discoveries are very exciting, experimental verification of them is extremely challenging. Even in the theoretical aspect, not all the issues have been resolved, e.g., the well known black hole information paradox. Quantum information science was developed rapidly during the last thirty years. The well established concepts and tools in quantum information science have been used to explore the quantum effects in gravitational fields and relativistic frames, giving birth to a new research field named relativistic quantum information. This thesis studies quantum effects in accelerated frames and gravitational fields by exploiting the concepts and techniques in quantum information science. The Unruh effect implies that the state of the fields confined within part of the Minkowski spacetime can appear thermal, and entanglement exists between different spacetime regions. We show that the particle number distribution of the field modes confined within a finite diamond region is also thermal in the Minkowski vacuum, an analogue to the Unruh effect; and there exists entanglement between different diamonds. The vacuum entanglement can be extracted and utilized for some quantum information protocols, e.g., quantum key distribution. Furthermore, we show that the presence of a horizon and the Unruh thermal noise has important consequences to the quantum communication protocols where one of the parties is a uniformly accelerated observer. Interactions between uniformly accelerated objects and quantum fields are traditionally studied using perturbation theory. The quantum circuit model, a crucial tool in quantum communication and computation, can be exploited to calculate radiations from the uniformly accelerated objects non-perturbatively. By further combining field detection scheme in quantum optics, e.g., homodyne detection, the output field from the uniformly accelerated objects can be fully studied. These techniques help to study decoherence effect in non-inertial frames, which may provide important insights for the black hole information paradox. Dynamical spacetimes generally create quantum particles. Gravitational perturbations around a black hole oscillate and decay, due to the emission of gravitational waves to spatial infinity and into the black hole. We show that they play the role as a multimode squeezer, squeezing the state of the quantum fields and creating particles.
We study the evolutions of selected quasi-(1+1) dimensional wavepacket solutions to the Klein–Gordon equation for a relativistic charged particle in uniform motion or accelerated by a uniform electric field in Minkowski space . We explore how good the charge density of a Klein–Gordon wavepacket can be approximately described by a Gaussian state with the single-particle interpretation. We find that the minimal initial width of a wavepacket for a good Gaussian approximation in position space is about the Compton wavelength of the particle divided by its Lorentz factor at the initial moment. This can be considered as a manifestation of relativistic length contraction, which is also observed numerically in the spreading of the wavepacket’s charge density.
When an electron is accelerated, it emits radiation. In the relativistic quantum realm the elementary radiation process is the emission of a single photon, a process known as nonlinear Compton scattering in the case of an electron moving in the presence of a strong electromagnetic wave. This process is typically described within the Furry picture, where the electromagnetic wave is described as a classical background field and the electron-positron field is quantized in the presence of that background field. Equivalently one can quantize the electron-positron field in the vacuum but then the photon emission process is described as a transition from an initial state to a final state both featuring, apart from the electron (the initial state) and the electron and the photon (the final state), the same coherent state of photons appropriately related to the electromagnetic wave. Here, we consider a more general situation where the initial and the final state feature the same squeezed coherent state. Then, we specialize to the case where the coherent state corresponds to a plane-wave field and the mostly populated modes of the coherent state are also squeezed. We show that, when quantum fluctuations induced by the squeezing in the coherent field are negligible, a condition well satisfied at available squeezing levels, the squeezing effects effectively reduce to a frequency modulation of the plane-wave field corresponding to the coherent state. By means of numerical examples we show that at already available squeezing levels the emission spectrum of nonlinear Compton scattering and the total photon yield can be altered significantly. Analytical explanations of the main numerical results are also provided.
Quantum effects in non-inertial frames and curved space-time have been studied for decades. One of the most intriguing discoveries is the existence of virtual particles in the quantum vacuum. One example in which such particles can be observed is through the Unruh effect, which predicts that a uniformly accelerated observer would see a thermal bath of (virtual) particles in the quantum vacuum. Initial doubts on the existence of these virtual particles were allayed by the Unruh De-Witt (UDW) detector, which promoted these virtual particles to real excitations of the detector. Ever since, semiclassical approaches to relativistic quantum field theory (QFT) in flat and curved space-time have been predominantly analysed through a two-level Unruh De-Witt detector utilizing perturbation theory. It is noted, however, that the change of relativistic frame preserves Gaussian properties (e.g. Gaussian distribution of the Wigner function) of the system. In this thesis, we specifically explore the effects of relativistic (non-inertial) reference frames on QFT by considering relativistic QFT in flat-space time. These systems are analysed from the perspective of Gaussian quantum information, via homodyne detection and UDW detectors with a harmonic oscillator degree of freedom.Our project starts by reviewing and developing bipartite/multi-partite entanglement measures (specifically, entanglement of formation), in the hope that we can utilize these measures to understand the entanglement properties of the quantum vacuum. In general, these measure have infinite degrees of freedom and are incomputable. In this project the multi-partite entanglement measure is applied to the Gaussian regime, which reduces the number of degrees of freedom to a finite one, hence making it a computable measure.In our next project, we attempt to understand how relativistic reference frames affect the communication between different observers. To obtain an intuition of its effect, a passive (time-delay) signal sent from a uniformly accelerated observer to a stationary observer was analysed. When we naively implemented the self-homodyne detection scheme, the signal appeared noisy. This effect was referred to as apparent decoherence, and its effect could be traced back to our naive assumption that all of the signal’s information would be stored in the time-delayed mode; the vacuum entanglement that pre-existed before the (time-delay) signal was created must be accounted for. We follow by analysing the effects that emerge due to communication between different relativistic reference frames. We then develop a communication technique referred to as ideal-homodyne which is a homodyne detection scheme robust to these effects. We used this detection scheme to analyse the correlation/entanglement properties of an accelerated signal (created via accelerated mirror, squeezer and phase shifter) sent to an inertial observer.In our last project, we utilize the knowledge that was gained through the prior projects to analyse (subcycle) electro-optic sampling. In the literature, there were doubts as to whether electro-optic sampling were truly detecting virtual particles in the quantum vacuum, or particle excitations that were created as a by-product of the detection mechanism. We were able to pin-point some similarities between electro-optic sampling and subcycle probe via the UDW detector. The regime in which the electro-optic sampling directly maps virtual particles from the vacuum into real excitations of the probe field was identified by establishing an equivalence to the UDW detector in certain parameter regimes.