Equilibrium and Nonequilibrium Quantum Correlations Between Two Accelerated Detectors

TL;DR

This paper investigates how quantum correlations between two accelerated detectors are affected by acceleration and temperature, revealing conditions where correlations are amplified or decay, especially in nonequilibrium scenarios.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of quantum correlations under acceleration and temperature effects, highlighting novel nonequilibrium phenomena and differences from thermal equilibrium.

Findings

Entanglement vanishes at high acceleration or temperature.

Mutual information and discord can be amplified with increased acceleration.

Nonequilibrium conditions can enhance quantum correlations.

Abstract

We quantify the quantum correlations between two accelerated detectors coupled to a scalar field in a cavity. It has been realized that an accelerated detector will experience a thermal bath, which is termed the Unruh effect. We examine the similarities and differences for quantum correlations regarding either temperature or acceleration. As the accelerations (resp. temperatures) of the detectors increase, the entanglement decreases to zero at some instant but the mutual information (resp. discord) can be amplified. As the accelerations increase but are in opposite directions, the quantum correlations decay. Importantly, we also reveal that larger quantum correlations can appear in certain nonequilibrium scenarios in which either the acceleration difference or the coupling difference becomes significant.