Welcome to the new version of CaltechAUTHORS. Login is currently restricted to library staff. If you notice any issues, please email coda@library.caltech.edu
Published February 15, 2009 | public
Journal Article

Entangling power of an expanding universe

Abstract

We show that entanglement can be used to detect spacetime curvature. Quantum fields in the Minkowski vacuum are entangled with respect to local field modes. This entanglement can be swapped to spatially separated quantum systems using standard local couplings. A single, inertial field detector in the exponentially expanding (de Sitter) vacuum responds as if it were bathed in thermal radiation in a Minkowski universe. We show that using two inertial detectors, interactions with the field in the thermal case will entangle certain detector pairs that would not become entangled in the corresponding de Sitter case. The two universes can thus be distinguished by their entangling power.

Additional Information

© 2009 The American Physical Society. Received 30 November 2008; published 23 February 2009. We thank John Preskill, Sean Carroll, Gerard Milburn, and Carl Caves for invaluable discussions, comments, and guidance. N. C. M. thanks the faculty and staff of the Caltech Institute for Quantum Information for their hospitality during his visits, which allowed this work to come to fruition. Both G. V. S. and N. C. M. acknowledge support from the National Science Foundation, with N. C. M. also supported by the U.S. Department of Defense. PACS: 04.62.+v; 03.65.Ud.

Additional details

Created:
August 21, 2023
Modified:
October 18, 2023