Fulling-Davies-Unruh effect for accelerated two-level single and entangled atomic systems

Abstract

We investigate the transition rates of uniformly accelerated two-level single and entangled atomic systems in empty space as well as inside a cavity. We take into account the interaction between the systems and a massless scalar field from the viewpoint of an instantaneously inertial observer and a coaccelerated observer, respectively. The upward transition occurs only due to the acceleration of the atom. For the two-atom system, we consider that the system is initially prepared in a generic pure entangled state. In the presence of a cavity, we observe that for both the single and the two-atom cases, the upward and downward transitions are occurred due to the acceleration of the atomic systems. The transition rate manifests subtle features depending upon the cavity and system parameters, as well as the initial entanglement. It is shown that no transition occurs for a maximally entangled super-radiant initial state, signifying that such entanglement in the accelerated two-atom system can be preserved for quantum information procesing applications. Our analysis comprehensively validates the equivalence between the effect of uniform acceleration for an inertial observer and the effect of a thermal bath for a coaccelerated observer, in free space as well as inside a cavity, if the temperature of the thermal bath is equal to the Unruh temperature.