Dynamics and quantum entanglement of two-level atoms in de Sitter spacetime

Abstract

In the framework of open quantum systems, we study the internal dynamics of both freely falling and static two-level atoms interacting with quantized conformally coupled massless scalar field in de Sitter spacetime. We find that the atomic transition rates depend on both the nature of de Sitter spacetime and the motion of atoms, interestingly the steady states for both cases are always driven to being purely thermal, regardless of the atomic initial states. This thermalization phenomenon is structurally similar to what happens to an elementary quantum system immersed in a thermal field, and thus reveals the thermal nature of de Sitter spacetime. Besides, we find that the thermal baths will drive the entanglement shared by the freely falling atom (the static atom) and its auxiliary partner, a same two-level atom which is isolated from external fields, to being sudden death, and the proper time for the entanglement to be extinguished is computed. We also analyze that such thermalization and disentanglement phenomena, in principle, could be understood from the perspective of table-top simulation experiment.

16 pages, 2 figures, Accepted for publication in Ann. Phys

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Cited by in corpus (10)

• Entanglement amplification between superposed detectors in flat and curved spacetimes
• Entanglement dynamics in de Sitter spacetime
• Inhibiting decoherence of two-level atom in thermal bath by presence of boundaries
• Fate of entanglement between two Unruh-DeWitt detectors due to their motion and background temperature
• Entanglement dynamics in $\kappa$-deformed spacetime
• Superhorizon entanglement from inflationary particle production
• Unruh deWitt probe of late time revival of quantum correlations in Friedmann spacetimes
• Equilibrium and nonequilibrium quantum correlations between two detectors in curved space time
• Entangled states dynamics of moving two-level atoms in a thermal field bath
• Entropic uncertainty in the background of expanding de Sitter space-time