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.

5 pages, 2 figures; v5: final published version

References in corpus (3)

• Entanglement in an expanding spacetime
• All bipartite entangled states display some hidden nonlocality
• Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen correlations between two uniformly accelerated oscillators

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Redistribution of particle and anti-particle entanglement in non-inertial frames
• Fermionic entanglement that survives a black hole
• Vacuum entanglement enhancement by a weak gravitational field
• Entanglement of two qubits in a relativistic orbit
• Vanishing Geometric Discord in Non-Inertial Frames
• Entanglement, recoherence and information flow in an accelerated detector - quantum field system: Implications for black hole information issue
• Quantum accelerometer: distinguishing inertial Bob from his accelerated twin Rob by a local measurement