Unruh effect without entanglement

Carlo Rovelli (1) , Matteo Smerlak (1)

1 CPT - Centre de Physique Théorique - UMR 7332

We estimate the transition rates of a uniformly accelerated Unruh-DeWitt detector coupled to a quantum field with reflecting conditions on a boundary plane (a "mirror"). We find that these are essentially indistinguishable from the usual Unruh rates, viz. that the Unruh effect persists in the presence of the mirror. This shows that the Unruh effect is not merely a consequence of the entanglement between left and right Rindler quanta in the Minkowski vacuum. Since in this setup the state of the field in the Rindler wedge is pure, we argue furthermore that the relevant entropy in the Unruh effect cannot be the von Neumann entanglement entropy. We suggest, in alternative, that it is the Shannon entropy associated with Heisenberg uncertainty.

Domaines: Relativité Générale et Cosmologie Quantique [gr-qc]; Physique des Hautes Energies - Théorie [hep-th]

Carlo Rovelli, Matteo Smerlak. Unruh effect without entanglement. 2012. ⟨hal-00694405⟩