Entanglement dynamics in a Kerr spacetime

TL;DR

This paper investigates how entanglement between two atoms evolves in a rotating black hole spacetime, revealing the influence of superradiance and vacuum states on quantum correlations and the potential breakdown of Markovian assumptions.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of entanglement dynamics in Kerr spacetime considering superradiance and different vacuum states, highlighting effects on complete positivity and Markovian approximation validity.

Findings

Superradiance significantly alters entanglement compared to Schwarzschild spacetime.

Entanglement dynamics can probe inside the ergosphere for ZAMO observers.

Violation of complete positivity linked to the breakdown of the Markovian approximation.

Abstract

We consider the entanglement dynamics between two-level atoms in a rotating black hole background. In our model the two-atom system is envisaged as an open system coupled with a massless scalar field prepared in one of the physical vacuum states of interest. We employ the quantum master equation in the Born-Markov approximation in order to describe the time evolution of the atomic subsystem. We investigate two different states of motion for the atoms, namely static atoms and also stationary atoms with zero angular momentum. The purpose of this work is to expound the impact on the creation of entanglement coming from the combined action of the different physical processes underlying the Hawking effect and the Unruh-Starobinskii effect. We demonstrate that, in the scenario of rotating black holes, the degree of quantum entanglement is significantly modified due to the phenomenon of superradiance in comparison with the analogous cases in a Schwarzschild spacetime. In the perspective of a zero angular momentum observer (ZAMO), one is allowed to probe entanglement dynamics inside the ergosphere, since static observers cannot exist within such a region. On the other hand, the presence of superradiant modes could be a source for violation of complete positivity. This is verified when the quantum field is prepared in the Frolov-Thorne vacuum state. In this exceptional situation, we raise the possibility that the loss of complete positivity is due to the breakdown of the Markovian approximation, which means that any arbitrary physically admissible initial state of the two atoms would not be capable to hold, with time evolution, its interpretation as a physical state inasmuch as negative probabilities are generated by the dynamical map.