Entanglement generation in uniformly accelerating atoms: Reexamination of the Unruh effect

Mar, 2004
24 pages
Published in:
  • Phys.Rev.A 70 (2004) 1, 012112
  • Published: Jul 30, 2004
e-Print:

Citations per year

20052010201520202025051015
Abstract: (APS)
The master equation describing the completely positive time evolution of a uniformly accelerated two-level system in weak interaction with a scalar field in the Minkowski vacuum is derived and explicitly solved. The moving system is found to be subjected to dissipation that drives its density matrix to a purely thermal equilibrium state, exhibiting a nonvanishing probability of spontaneous excitation, this phenomenon being usually referred to as the Unruh effect. Remarkably, when the uniformly accelerating system is composed by two, independent two-level atoms, the corresponding asymptotic, equilibrium state turns out to be entangled.
Note:
  • 24 pages, plain-TeX, no figures
  • Unruh effect
  • field theory: scalar
  • weak interaction
  • entanglement
  • atom: acceleration
  • master equation
  • decoherence
  • density matrix