Measurements on relativistic quantum fields: II. Detector models

TL;DR

This paper develops a comprehensive relativistic detector model for quantum fields, incorporating detector motion, dynamics, and couplings, and derives measurement probabilities including time-of-arrival distributions.

Contribution

It introduces a fully relativistic detector formalism that accounts for motion, dynamics, and couplings, unifying various detector models and deriving ideal measurement probabilities.

Findings

Recovered Unruh-Dewitt and Glauber detectors in limits

Derived an ideal distribution for relativistic time-of-arrival

Applied the model to particle detection, photodetection, and spin measurements

Abstract

This is the second paper on a new formalism for relativistic quantum measurements. Here, we construct a fully relativistic model for detectors that takes into account the detector's state of motion, intrinsics dynamics, initial states and couplings to the measured field. The dual classical/quantum description of the detector is implemented by using a master-equation type of approximation for the coarse-grained pointer variables. Then we identify the probabilities that correspond to ideal measurements, i.e., measurements that are largely insensitive to modeling details of the apparatus. The Unruh-Dewitt and Glauber detectors are recovered at the appropriate limits. We employ our results to models of particle detection, photodetection and relativistic spin measurements, and we derive an ideal distribution for relativistic time-of-arrival probabilities.