Unruh effect for detectors in superposition of accelerations

Luis C. Barbado, Esteban Castro-Ruiz, Luca Apadula, and Časlav Brukner
Phys. Rev. D 102, 045002 – Published 5 August 2020

Abstract

The Unruh effect is the phenomenon that accelerated observers detect particles even when inertial observers experience the vacuum state. In particular, uniformly accelerated observers are predicted to measure thermal radiation that is proportional to the acceleration. Here we consider the Unruh effect for a detector that follows a quantum superposition of different accelerated trajectories in Minkowski spacetime. More precisely, we analyze the excitations of a pointlike multilevel particle detector coupled to a massless real scalar field and moving in the superposition of accelerated trajectories. We find that the state of the detector excitations is, in general, not a mere (convex) mixture of the thermal spectrum characteristics of the Unruh effect for each trajectory with well-defined acceleration separately. Rather, for certain trajectories and excitation levels, and upon the measurement of the trajectory state, the state of the detector excitations features in addition off-diagonal terms. The off-diagonal terms of these “superpositions of thermal states” are related to the distinguishability of the different possible states in which the field is left after its interaction with detector’s internal degrees of the freedom.

  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Received 17 April 2020
  • Accepted 20 July 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.102.045002

© 2020 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Quantum Information, Science & TechnologyParticles & Fields

Authors & Affiliations

Luis C. Barbado1,2,*, Esteban Castro-Ruiz1,2,3,†, Luca Apadula1,2,‡, and Časlav Brukner1,2,§

  • 1Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Boltzmanngasse 3, 1090 Vienna, Austria
  • 2Quantum Optics, Quantum Nanophysics and Quantum Information, Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna, Boltzmanngasse 5, 1090 Vienna, Austria
  • 3QuIC, Ecole Polytechnique de Bruxelles, C.P. 165, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 1050 Brussels, Belgium

  • *luis.cortes.barbado@univie.ac.at
  • esteban.castro.ruiz@ulb.ac.be
  • luca.apadula@univie.ac.at
  • §caslav.brukner@univie.ac.at

Article Text (Subscription Required)

Click to Expand

References (Subscription Required)

Click to Expand
Issue

Vol. 102, Iss. 4 — 15 August 2020

Reuse & Permissions
Access Options
Author publication services for translation and copyediting assistance advertisement

Authorization Required


×
×

Images

×

Sign up to receive regular email alerts from Physical Review D

Log In

Cancel
×

Search


Article Lookup

Paste a citation or DOI

Enter a citation
×