arXiv subjects

Dimitris Moustos

Publications and source records attributed to Dimitris Moustos.

15 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Thermodynamic uncertainty relations for relativistic quantum thermal machines

We investigate a two-qubit SWAP thermal machine -- a streamlined analogue of the four-stroke Otto cycle -- whose working medium comprises inertially moving Unruh-DeWitt qubit detectors, each coupled to a thermal quantum field bath prepared at a different temperature. In the presence of relative motion between the working medium and the thermal baths, we derive thermodynamic uncertainty relations (TURs) that quantify the trade-off between performance, entropy production, and power fluctuations. Our analysis identifies regimes where relativistic motion leads to stronger violation of classical TURs, previously observed in static quantum setups. In addition, we establish generalized performance bounds for the thermal machine operating as either a heat engine or a refrigerator, and discuss how relativistic motion can enhance their performances beyond the standard Carnot limits defined by rest-frame temperatures.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Surpassing Carnot efficiency with relativistic motion

Relativistic thermal devices offer a unique platform for understanding the interplay between motion, quantum fields, and thermodynamics, revealing phenomena inaccessible to stationary systems. We consider a two-qubit SWAP heat engine whose working medium consists of inertially moving Unruh-DeWitt qubit detectors, each coupled to a scalar quantum field in thermal equilibrium at a distinct temperature. Relativistic motion causes the qubits to perceive frequency-dependent effective temperatures that are either hotter or colder than their respective reservoir temperature. We show that the relativistic temperature shift, perhaps the qubit velocity, can be harnessed as a thermodynamic resource to enhance the work output and the efficiency at maximum power of the heat engine. We derive a generalized second law for a heat engine with a moving working medium and demonstrate that it can exceed the standard Carnot bound defined by rest-frame temperatures.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Quantum thermal machines in BTZ black hole spacetime

We investigate an Otto thermodynamic cycle with a qubit Unruh-DeWitt detector as the working medium, coupled to a massless, conformally coupled scalar quantum field in the Hartle-Hawking vacuum in a (2+1)-dimensional BTZ black hole spacetime. We employ the thermal properties of the field to model heat and cold reservoirs between which the thermal machine operates. Treating the detector as an open quantum system, we employ a master equation to study its finite-time dynamics during each cycle stroke. We evaluate the output performance of the Otto heat engine and refrigerator by computing, respectively, the total work output and the cooling power for each of the Neumann, transparent, and Dirichlet boundary condition cases satisfied by the field at spatial infinity. Furthermore, we evaluate the optimal performance of the thermal machine by analyzing its efficiency at maximum power output and ecological impact. Our study presents a general framework for understanding the finite-time operation of relativistic quantum thermal machines, focusing on their energy optimization.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Gravity-mediated decoherence

A small quantum system within the gravitational field of a massive body will be entangled with the quantum degrees of freedom of the latter. Hence, the massive body acts as an environment, and it induces non-unitary dynamics, noise, and decoherence to the quantum system. It is impossible to shield systems on Earth from this gravity-mediated decoherence, which could severely affect all experiments with macroscopic quantum systems. We undertake a first-principles analysis of this effect, by deriving the corresponding open system dynamics. We find that near-future quantum experiments are not affected, but there is a strong decoherence effect at the human scale. The decoherence time for a superposition of two localized states of a human with an one meter separation is of the order of one second.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2023

An exactly solvable relativistic quantum Otto engine

We revisit the mathematics of exactly solvable Unruh-DeWitt detector models, interacting with massless scalar fields under instantaneous interactions, to construct a relativistic quantum Otto heat engine. By deriving the conditions under which the thermodynamic cycle is closed we study the effects of motion on the amount of work that can be extracted from the machine when the working medium is moving at a constant relativistic velocity through the heat baths. While there is a degrading effect with respect to speed in the hot bath, we demonstrate that in the case of the cold bath, genuine enhancing effects are sometimes present. For couplings the same order as the inverse frequency of the detector and a specific value for the temporal separation between the two instantaneous interactions--needed in order to be possible to cool the detector--a non-monotonic dependence between speed and extracted work exists raising the intriguing possibility of exploiting relativistic effects for the enhancement of thermodynamic processes in tabletop experiments.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Relativistic quantum communication between harmonic oscillator detectors

We propose a model of communication employing two harmonic oscillator detectors interacting through a scalar field in a background Minkowski spacetime. In this way, the scalar field plays the role of a quantum channel, namely a Bosonic Gaussian channel. The classical and quantum capacities of the communication channel are found, assuming that the detectors' spatial dimensions are negligible compared to their distance. In particular, we study the evolution in time of the classical capacity after the detectors-field interaction is switched on for various detectors' frequencies and coupling strengths with the field. As a result, we find a finite value of these parameters optimizing the communication of classical messages. Instead, a reliable communication of quantum messages turns out to be always inhibited.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2023

Entangled states dynamics of moving two-level atoms in a thermal field bath

We consider a two-level atom that follows a wordline of constant velocity, while interacting with a massless scalar field in a thermal state through: (i) an Unruh-DeWitt coupling, and (ii) a coupling that involves the time derivative of the field. We treat the atom as an open quantum system, with the field playing the role of the environment, and employ a master equation to describe its time evolution. We study the dynamics of entanglement between the moving atom and a (auxiliary) qubit at rest and isolated from the thermal field. We find that in the case of the standard Unruh-DeWitt coupling and for high temperatures of the environment the decay of entanglement is delayed due to the atom's motion. Instead, in the derivative coupling case, the atom's motion always causes the rapid death of entanglement.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Uniformly accelerated Brownian oscillator in (2+1)D: temperature-dependent dissipation and frequency shift

We consider an Unruh-DeWitt detector modeled as a harmonic oscillator that is coupled to a massless quantum scalar field in the (2+1)-dimensional Minkowski spacetime. We treat the detector as an open quantum system and employ a quantum Langevin equation to describe its time evolution, with the field, which is characterized by a frequency-independent spectral density, acting as a stochastic force. We investigate a point-like detector moving with constant acceleration through the Minkowski vacuum and an inertial one immersed in a thermal reservoir at the Unruh temperature, exploring the implications of the well-known non-equivalence between the two cases on their dynamics. We find that both the accelerated detector's dissipation rate and the shift of its frequency caused by the coupling to the field bath depend on the acceleration temperature. Interestingly enough this is not only in contrast to the case of inertial motion in a heat bath but also to any analogous quantum Brownian motion model in open systems, where dissipation and frequency shifts are not known to exhibit temperature dependencies. Nonetheless, we show that the fluctuating-dissipation theorem still holds for the detector-field system and in the weak-coupling limit an accelerated detector is driven at late times to a thermal equilibrium state at the Unruh temperature.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2021

Assisted harvesting and catalysis of coherence from scalar fields

Recently it has been demonstrated that it is possible to harvest quantum resources other than entanglement from a coherent scalar field. Employing time-dependent perturbation theory, we present a complete analysis of the conditions under which a spatially extended Unruh-DeWitt detector coupled to the proper time derivative of the field can harvest coherence for any initial state of the field, as well as the energy cost that is required for each harvest. By studying harvesting under repeatable extractions it is proven that when the detector interacts with the field through a delta coupling coherence is catalytic. For a Gaussian smeared detector it is shown that harvesting from a coherent field depends on the phase of its amplitude distribution and its initial energy as well as on the mean radius of the detector and the mean interaction duration between the two. For a detector moving at a constant velocity and with a mean radius of the same order as its transition wavelength, we observe that, for relativistic speeds, coherence swelling effects are present the intensity of which depends on the dimension of the underlying Minkowski spacetime.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Field assisted extraction and swelling of quantum coherence for moving Unruh-DeWitt detectors

We study the effects of motion for an Unruh-DeWitt detector, modeled as a two-level system, on the amount of coherence extracted, when it interacts with a massless scalar coherent field in 1+1 Minkowski spacetime. We observe that compared to a detector at rest, for certain values of the initial energy of the field and the interaction duration, the amount is larger for both a detector moving with a constant speed or uniform acceleration. This "swelling" of coherence, which becomes more intense for increasing values of velocity or acceleration, is mostly observed for short durations, when the energy of the field is larger compared to that of the detector, and for longer durations but smaller field energies. As a consequence, the rate at which coherence is lost, is sometimes slower for a moving detector than for a detector at rest.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Unruh-like effects: Effective temperatures along stationary worldlines

We study the detailed balance temperatures recorded along all classes of stationary, uniformly accelerated worldlines in four-dimensional Minkowski spacetime, namely along (i) linear uniform acceleration, (ii) cusped, (iii) circular, (iv) catenary, and (v) helix worldlines, among which the Unruh temperature is the particular case for linear uniform acceleration. As a measuring device, we employ an Unruh-DeWitt detector, modeled as a qubit that interacts for a long time with a massless Klein-Gordon field in the vacuum state. The temperatures in each case (i) - (v) are functions of up to three invariant quantities: curvature or proper acceleration, $\kappa$, torsion, $b$, and hypertorsion, $\nu$, and except for the case (i), they depend on the transition frequency difference of the detector, $\omega$. We investigate numerically the behavior of the frequency-dependent temperatures for different values of $\kappa$, $b$, and $\nu$ along the stationary worldlines (ii) - (v) and evaluate analytically the regimes where the temperatures recorded along the different worldlines coincide with each other in terms of relevant asymptotic limits for $\kappa$, $b$, or $\nu$, and discuss their physical meaning. We demonstrate that the temperatures in cases (ii) - (v) dip under the Unruh temperature at low frequencies and go above the Unruh temperature for large $|\omega|$. It is our hope that this study will be relevant to the design of experiments seeking to verify the Unruh effect or generalizations thereof.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2019

Asymptotic states for stationary Unruh-DeWitt detectors

We study the late-time asymptotic state of a stationary Unruh-DeWitt detector interacting with a field in a thermal state. We work in an open system framework, where the field plays the role of an environment for the detector. The long-time interaction between the detector and the field is modelled with the aid of a one-parameter family of switching functions that turn on and off the interaction Hamiltonian between the two subsystems, such that the long-time interaction limit is reached as the family parameter goes to infinity. In such limit, we show that if the field is in a Kubo-Martin-Schwinger (KMS) state and the detector is stationary with respect to the notion of positive frequency of the field, in the Born-Markov approximation, the asymptotic state of the detector is a Gibbs state at the KMS temperature. We then relax the KMS condition for the field state, and require only that a frequency-dependent version of the detailed balance condition for the Wightman function pulled back to the detector worldline hold, in the sense that the inverse temperature appearing in the detailed balance relation need not be constant. In this setting, we show that the late-time asymptotic state of the detector has the form of a thermal density matrix, but with a frequency-dependent temperature. We present examples of these results, which include the classical Unruh effect and idealised Hawking radiation (for fields in the HHI state), and also the study of the late-time behaviour of detectors following stationary "cusped" and circular motions in Minkowski space interacting with a massless Klein-Gordon field in the Minkowski vacuum. In the cusped motion case, a frequency-dependent, effective temperature for the asymptotic late-time detector state is obtained analytically. In the circular motion case, such effective temperature is obtained numerically.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2018

Asymptotic states of accelerated detectors and universality of the Unruh effect

We treat an Unruh-DeWitt detector as an open quantum system and evaluate the response of a uniformly accelerated detector: (i) interacting locally with the derivatives of a massless scalar field and (ii) linearly coupled to an electromagnetic field. We find that the early-time transition rate of the detector strongly depends on the type of the interaction between the detector and the quantum field, and may not follow a Planck distribution. In contrast, the late time asymptotic state is always thermal at the Unruh temperature and thus provides a more fundamental and persistent characterization of the acceleration temperature: A uniformly accelerated detector experiences the field vacuum as a genuine thermal bath at the Unruh temperature and eventually settles at a thermal state, regardless of their intermediate dynamics or the type of interaction.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2017

Gravity as a thermodynamic phenomenon

The analogy between the laws of black hole mechanics and the laws of thermodynamics led Bekenstein and Hawking to argue that black holes should be considered as real thermodynamic systems that are characterised by entropy and temperature. Black hole thermodynamics indicates a deeper connection between thermodynamics and gravity. We review and examine in detail the arguments that suggest an interpretation of gravity itself as a thermodynamic theory.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2016

Non-Markovian time evolution of an accelerated qubit

We present a new method for evaluating the response of a moving qubit detector interacting with a scalar field in Minkowski spacetime. We treat the detector as an open quantum system, but we do not invoke the Markov approximation. The evolution equations for the qubit density matrix are valid at all times, for all qubit trajectories and they incorporate non-Markovian effects. We analyze in detail the case of uniform acceleration, providing a detailed characterization of all regimes where non-Markovian effects are significant. We argue that the most stable characterization of acceleration temperature refers to the late time behavior of the detector, because interaction with the field vacuum brings the qubit to a thermal state at the Unruh temperature. In contrast, the early-time transition rate, that is invoked in most discussions of acceleration temperature, does not exhibit a thermal behavior when non-Markovian effects are taken into account. Finally, we note that the non-Markovian evolution derived here also applies to the mathematically equivalent problem of a static qubit interacting with a thermal field bath.

gr-qc↗