Entanglement in Relativistic Quantum Mechanics

TL;DR

This thesis explores how entanglement behaves under relativistic conditions, demonstrating that while entanglement remains invariant, Bell inequalities can be satisfied or violated depending on Lorentz transformations and Wigner rotations.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of relativistic effects on entanglement and Bell inequalities, emphasizing the role of Wigner rotations and the construction of relativistic spin operators.

Findings

Entanglement is Lorentz invariant.

Bell inequalities can be satisfied or violated depending on Wigner angles.

Relativistic spin operators are crucial for analyzing entanglement under Lorentz transformations.

Abstract

In this thesis, entanglement under fully relativistic settings are discussed. The thesis starts with a brief review of the relativistic quantum mechanics. In order to describe the effects of Lorentz transformations on the entangled states, quantum mechanics and special relativity are merged by construction of the unitary irreducible representations of Poincar{\'e} group on the infinite dimensional Hilbert space of state vectors. In this framework, the issue of finding the unitary irreducible representations of Poincar{\'e} group is reduced to that of the little group. Wigner rotation for the massive particles plays a crucial role due to its effect on the spin polarization directions. Furthermore, the physical requirements for constructing the correct relativistic spin operator is also studied. Then, the entanglement and Bell type inequalities are reviewed. Special attention has been devoted to two historical papers, by EPR in 1935 and by J.S. Bell in 1964. The main part of the thesis is based on the Lorentz transformation of the Bell states and the Bell inequalities on these transformed states. It is shown that entanglement is a Lorentz invariant quantity. That is, no inertial observer can see the entangled state as a separable one. However, it was shown that the Bell inequality may be satisfied for the Wigner angle dependent transformed entangled states. Since the Wigner rotation changes the spin polarization direction with the increased velocity, initial dichotomous operators can satisfy the Bell inequality for those states. By choosing the dichotomous operators taking into consideration the Wigner angle, it is always possible to show that Bell type inequalities can be violated for the transformed entangled states.