No Arabic abstract
The goal of quantum metrology is the exploitation of quantum resources, like entanglement or quantum coherence, in the fundamental task of parameter estimation. Here we consider the question of the estimation of the Unruh temperature in the scenario of relativistic quantum metrology. Specifically, we study two distinct cases. First, a single Unruh-DeWitt detector interacting with a scalar quantum field undergoes an uniform acceleration for a finite amount of proper time, and the role of coherence in the estimation process is analyzed. After this, we consider two initially entangled detectors, one of which is inertial while the other one undergoes acceleration. Our results show that the maximum of the Fisher information, thus characterizing the maximum possible precision according to Cramm{e}r-Rao bound, occurs only for small accelerations, while it decreases fast when acceleration increases. Moreover, the role of initial coherence ---in the single detector case---, or entanglement ---in the two detectors case---, is to decrease Fisher information. Therefore, under the considered protocol, internal coherence (or entanglement) is not a resource for estimating Unruh temperature. These unexpected results show that a detection of the Unruh effect can be even more challenge than previously thought. Finally, by considering the connection between Unruh effect and Hawking radiation, we discuss how our results can be understood in the context of the estimation of Hawking temperature.
In our previous work it has been shown the possibility to use the Aharonov-Anandan invariant as a tool in the analysis of disparate systems, including Hawking and Unruh effects, as well as graphene physics and thermal states. We show that the vacuum condensation, characterizing such systems, is also related with geometric phases and we analyze the properties of the geometric phase of systems represented by mixed state and undergoing a nonunitary evolution. In particular, we consider two level atoms accelerated by an external potential and interacting with a thermal state. We propose the realization of Mach-Zehnder interferometers which can prove the existence of the Unruh effect and can allow very precise measurements of temperature.
We study the estimation of parameters in a quantum metrology scheme based on entangled many-body Unruh-DeWitt detectors. It is found that the precision for the estimation of Unruh effect can be enhanced via initial state preparations and parameter selections. It is shown that the precision in the estimation of the Unruh temperature in terms of a many-body-probe metrology is always better than the precision in two probe strategies. The proper acceleration for Bobs detector and the interaction between the accelerated detector and the external field have significant influences on the precision for the Unruh effects estimation. In addition, the probe state prepared with more excited atoms in the initial state is found to perform better than less excited initial states. However, different from the estimation of the Unruh temperature, the estimation of the effective coupling parameter for the accelerated detector requires more total atoms but less excited atoms in the estimations.
Measuring local temperature with a spatial resolution on the order of a few nanometers has a wide range of applications from semiconductor industry over material to life sciences. When combined with precision temperature measurement it promises to give excess to small temperature changes caused e.g. by chemical reactions or biochemical processes. However, nanoscale temperature measurements and precision have excluded each other so far owing to the physical processes used for temperature measurement of limited stability of nanoscale probes. Here we experimentally demonstrate a novel nanoscale temperature sensing technique based on single atomic defects in diamonds. Sensor sizes range from millimeter down to a few tens of nanometers. Utilizing the sensitivity of the optically accessible electron spin level structure to temperature changes we achieve a temperature noise floor of 5 mK Hz$^{-1/2}$ for single defects in bulk sensors. Using doped nanodiamonds as sensors yields temperature measurement with 130 mK Hz$^{-1/2}$ noise floor and accuracies down to 1 mK at length scales of a few ten nanometers. The high sensitivity to temperature changes together with excellent spatial resolution combined with outstanding sensor stability allows for nanoscale precision temperature determination enough to measure chemical processes of few or single molecules by their reaction heat even in heterogeneous environments like cells.
We propose an experiment in which the phonon excitation of ion(s) in a trap, with a trap frequency exponentially modulated at rate $kappa$, exhibits a thermal spectrum with an Unruh temperature given by T=hbar*kappa. We discuss the similarities of this experiment to the usual Unruh effect for quantum fields and uniformly accelerated detectors. We demonstrate a new Unruh effect for detectors that respond to anti-normally ordered moments using the ions first blue sideband transition.
We address the validity of the single-mode approximation that is commonly invoked in the analysis of entanglement in non-inertial frames and in other relativistic quantum information scenarios. We show that the single-mode approximation is not valid for arbitrary states, finding corrections to previous studies beyond such approximation in the bosonic and fermionic cases. We also exhibit a class of wave packets for which the single-mode approximation is justified subject to the peaking constraints set by an appropriate Fourier transform.