Can boundary configuration be tuned to optimize directional quantum steering harvesting?

TL;DR

This study explores how boundary configurations influence quantum steering between detectors near a reflecting boundary, revealing that orientation and distance can optimize directional quantum steering harvesting.

Contribution

It demonstrates how boundary orientation and detector parameters can be tuned to control and enhance quantum steering asymmetry in a vacuum field environment.

Findings

Boundary suppresses or enhances steering depending on distance and orientation.

Parallel alignment yields symmetric steering for identical detectors.

Orthogonal alignment breaks symmetry and affects steering directionality.

Abstract

We investigate the harvesting of quantum steering and its asymmetry between two static detectors locally interacting with a vacuum massless scalar field near an infinite, perfectly reflecting boundary. The detectors are arranged either parallel or orthogonal to the boundary, with detector $B$ assumed to have an energy gap greater than or equal to that of detector $A$. It is interesting to observe that, with increasing distance between the detectors and the boundary, the boundary tends to suppress quantum steering in one direction while enhancing it in the opposite direction. In the case of identical detectors, steering is symmetric when they are aligned parallel to the boundary. However, orthogonal alignment breaks this symmetry due to their unequal spatial proximity to the boundary. For non-identical detectors in the parallel configuration, the steering from $A$ to $B$ ($A \rightarrow B$) generally surpasses that from $B$ to $A$ ($B \rightarrow A$). In contrast, when the detectors are oriented orthogonally to the boundary, the relative strength of $A \rightarrow B$ and $B \rightarrow A$ steerability depends on the interplay between the boundary effects and the detectors' energy gap difference. Across most of the parameter space, the orthogonal alignment tends to enhance $B \rightarrow A$ steering while suppressing $A \rightarrow B$ steering compared to the parallel setup. These findings suggest that boundary configurations should be flexibly adjusted according to the directional dependence of steering harvesting in order to optimize quantum information extraction.