arXiv subjects

Shih-Yuin Lin

Publications and source records attributed to Shih-Yuin Lin.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Relativistic single-electron wavepacket in quantum electromagnetic fields II: Quantum radiation emitted by a uniformly accelerated electron

We compute the quantum radiation emitted by wavepackets of relativistic single electrons, both at rest and undergoing uniform acceleration in the Minkowski vacuum of the electromagnetic field. We find that the cubic terms in the original nonlinear action of electrodynamics should be considered in obtaining the quantum radiation to the leading order. We show that the quantum radiation from a single-electron wavepacket at rest vanishes exactly. For a uniformly accelerated electron, the quantum radiated power has secular growth in the long-time regime. We demonstrate that this secular growth has a classical interpretation, and argue that the resummed quantum radiation at late times would not diverge. Regarding experimental proposals for the detection of the Unruh effect from the quantum radiation in the `blind spots' of classical radiation we ascertain that quantum corrections in the two blind spots are fully contributed by the transverse deviation correlators, where the dominant contributions are irrelevant to the Unruh effect in electron microscopes.

hep-th↗

arXiv2024

Relativistic single-electron wavepacket in quantum electromagnetic fields: Quantum coherence, correlations, and the Unruh effect

Conventional formulation of QED since the 50s works very well for stationary states and for scattering problems, but with newly arisen challenges from the 80s on, where real time evolution of particles in a nonequilibrium setting are required, and quantum features such as coherence, dissipation, correlation and entanglement in a system interacting with its quantum field environment are sought after, new ways to formulate QED suitable for these purposes beckon. In this paper we present a linearized effective theory using a Gaussian wavepacket description of a charged relativistic particle coupled to quantum electromagnetic fields to study the interplay between single electrons and quantum fields in free space, at a scale well below the Schwinger limit. The proper values of the regulators in our effective theory are determined from the data of individual experiments, and will be time-dependent in the laboratory frame if the single electrons are accelerated. Using this new theoretical tool, we address the issues of decoherence of flying electrons in free space and the impact of Unruh effect on the electrons. Our result suggests that vacuum fluctuations may be a major source of blurring the interference pattern in electron microscopes. For a single electron accelerated in a uniform electric field, we identify the Unruh effect in the two-point correlators of the deviations from the electron's classical trajectory. From our calculations we also bring out some subtleties, involving the bosonic versus fermionic spectral functions.

hep-th↗

arXiv2023

Quantum mechanical Gaussian wavepackets of single relativistic particles

We study the evolutions of selected quasi-(1+1) dimensional wavepacket solutions to the Klein-Gordon equation for a relativistic charged particle in uniform motion or accelerated by a uniform electric field in Minkowski space. We explore how good the charge density of a Klein-Gordon wavepacket can be approximated by a Gaussian state with the single-particle interpretation. We find that the minimal initial width of a wavepacket for a good Gaussian approximation in position space is about the Compton wavelength of the particle divided by its Lorentz factor at the initial moment. Relativistic length contraction also manifests in the spreading of the wavepacket's charge density.

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arXiv2021

The Deep Space Quantum Link: Prospective Fundamental Physics Experiments using Long-Baseline Quantum Optics

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Deep Space Quantum Link mission concept enables a unique set of science experiments by establishing robust quantum optical links across extremely long baselines. Potential mission configurations include establishing a quantum link between the Lunar Gateway moon-orbiting space station and nodes on or near the Earth. In this publication, we summarize the principal experimental goals of the Deep Space Quantum Link mission. These include long-range teleportation, tests of gravitational coupling to quantum states, and advanced tests of quantum nonlocality.

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arXiv2020

Quantum teleportation and entanglement swapping with long baseline in outer space

Quantum information experiments applying quantum optics in outer space with a very long baseline may have advantages over the current earth-bound experiments or the earth-to-satellite experiments because they can minimize the loss in light transmission and maximize the gain in time resolution. This future class of experiments, amongst them quantum teleportation and entanglement swapping, can shed light on many fundamental theoretical issues in gravitational quantum physics and relativistic quantum information. Regarding relativity theory, these experiments in an outer-space setting can involve observers at spacelike and timelike separations and explicate intriguing phenomena from different choices of time-slicing. Regarding quantum information, they may be able to ensure the causal independence of the expectation values in the Bell test. These issues are addressed in this paper with analysis and explanations.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Relativistic quantum bouncing particles in a homogeneous gravitational field

In this paper, we study the relativistic effect on the wave functions for a bouncing particle in a gravitational field. Motivated by the equivalence principle, we investigate the Klein-Gordon and Dirac equations in Rindler coordinates with the boundary conditions mimicking a uniformly accelerated mirror in Minkowski space. In the nonrelativistic limit, all these models in the comoving frame reduce to the familiar eigenvalue problem for the Schr\"odinger equation with a fixed floor in a linear gravitational potential, as expected. We find that the transition frequency between two energy levels of a bouncing Dirac particle is greater than the counterpart of a Klein-Gordon particle, while both are greater than their nonrelativistic limit. The different corrections to eigen-energies of particles of different nature are associated with the different behaviors of their wave functions around the mirror boundary.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2019

Notes on observational and radar coordinates for localized observers

The worldline of a uniformly accelerated localized observer in Minkowski space is restricted in the Rindler wedge, where the observer can in principle arrange experiments repeatedly, and the Cauchy problem for quantum fields in that Rindler wedge can be well defined. However, the observer can still receive the signals sourced by the events behind the past horizon, and coordinatize those events in terms of some kind of observational coordinates. We construct such observational coordinates in some simple cases with the localized observers in Minkowski, de Sitter, and Schwarzschild-like spacetimes, and compare them with radar coordinates for the same observers.

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arXiv2019

Seeing through a nearly black star

A nearly black, gravitationally intense star of semi-transparent, spherical, massive shell containing a few pointlike light sources inside would be perceived not like a three-dimensional ball for a localized observer outside the shell in terms of the affine or binocular distance. As the radius of the spherical shell approaches the Schwarzschild radius, the perceived distance between the front and rear surfaces of the shell would go to zero, while the images of most of the interior emitters would squeeze around the shell surfaces in terms of the affine or binocular distance. So, the Schwarzschild black hole formed from the star would be thought of as a two-dimensional membrane for the observers who can only measure the binocular distance and/or affine distance. However, the depth information of a point source inside the nearly black star can still be resolved in terms of the radar or luminosity distance, which needs the knowledge about the radar signals or standard candles sent in earlier by the observer outside the star. This suggests that at late times of gravitational collapse the area law of the entropy would dominate over the volume law for outside observers due to the loss of the knowledge about the ingoing probes earlier.

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arXiv2019

Fluctuation-Dissipation and Correlation-Propagation Relations in $(1+3)$D Moving Detector-Quantum Field Systems

The fluctuation-dissipation relations (FDR) are powerful relations which can capture the essence of the interplay between a system and its environment. Challenging problems of this nature which FDRs aid in our understanding include the backreaction of quantum field processes like particle creation on the spacetime dynamics in early universe cosmology or quantum black holes. The less familiar, yet equally important correlation-propagation relations (CPR) relate the correlations of stochastic forces on different detectors to the retarded and advanced parts of the radiation propagated in the field. Here, we analyze a system of $N$ uniformly-accelerated Unruh-DeWitt detectors whose internal degrees of freedom (idf) are minimally coupled to a real, massless, scalar field in 4D Minkowski space, extending prior work in 2D with derivative coupling. Using the influence functional formalism, we derive the stochastic equations describing the nonequilibrium dynamics of the idfs. We show after the detector-field dynamics has reached equilibration the existence of the FDR and the CPR for the detectors, which combine to form a {\it generalized} fluctuation-dissipation matrix relation We show explicitly the energy flows between the constituents of the system of detectors and between the system and the quantum field environment. This power balance anchors the generalized FDR. We anticipate this matrix relation to provide a useful guardrail in expounding some basic issues in relativistic quantum information, such as ensuring the self-consistency of the energy balance and tracking the quantum information transfer in the detector-field system.

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arXiv2018

Late-time quantum radiation by a uniformly accelerated detector in de Sitter spacetime

We investigate the quantum radiation emitted by a uniformly accelerated Unruh-DeWitt detector in de Sitter spacetime. We find that there exists a non-vanishing quantum radiation at late times in the radiation zone of the conformally flat coordinates, which cover the region behind the cosmological horizon for the accelerated detector. The theoretical structure of producing the late-time quantum radiation is similar to that of the same model in Minkowski spacetime: it comes from a nonlocal correlation of the quantum field in the Bunch-Davies vacuum state, which can be traced back to the entanglement between the field modes defined in different regions in de Sitter spacetime.

hep-th↗

arXiv2018

Unruh-DeWitt detectors as mirrors: Dynamical reflectivity and Casimir effect

We demonstrate that the Unruh-DeWitt harmonic-oscillator detectors in (1+1) dimensions derivative-coupled with a massless scalar field can mimic the atom mirrors in free space. Without introducing the Dirichlet boundary condition to the field, the reflectivity of our detector/atom mirror is dynamically determined by the interaction of the detector's internal oscillator and the field. When the oscillator-field coupling is strong, a broad frequency range of the quantum field can be mostly reflected by the detector mirror at late times. Constructing a cavity model with two such detector mirrors, we can see how the quantum field inside the cavity evolves from a continuous to a quasi-discrete spectrum which gives a negative Casimir energy density at late times. In our numerical calculations, the Casimir energy density in the cavity does not converge until the UV cutoff is sufficiently large, with which the two internal oscillators are always separable.

hep-th↗

arXiv2017

Quantum radiation by an Unruh-DeWitt detector in oscillatory motion

Quantum radiated power emitted by an Unruh-DeWitt (UD) detector in linear oscillatory motion in (3+1)D Minkowski space, with the internal harmonic oscillator minimally coupled to a massless scalar field, is obtained non-perturbatively by numerical method. The signal of the Unruh-like effect experienced by the detector is found to be pronounced in quantum radiation in the highly non-equilibrium regime with high averaged acceleration and short oscillatory cycle, and the signal would be greatly suppressed by quantum interference when the averaged proper acceleration is sufficiently low. An observer at a fixed angle would see periods of negative radiated power in each cycle of motion, while the averaged radiated power over a cycle is always positive as guaranteed by the quantum inequalities. Coherent high harmonic generation and down conversion are identified in the detector's quantum radiation. Due to the overwhelming largeness of the vacuum correlators of the free field, the asymptotic reduced state of the harmonics of the radiation field is approximately a direct product of the squeezed thermal states.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2016

Radiation by an Unruh-DeWitt Detector in Oscillatory Motion

Quantum radiated energy flux emitted by an Unruh-DeWitt (UD) detector, with the internal harmonic oscillator coupled to a massless scalar field, in linear oscillatory motion in (3+1) dimensional Minkowski space is studied by numerical methods. Our results show that quantum interference can indeed suppress the signal of the Unruh effect if the averaged proper acceleration is sufficiently low, but not in the regime with high averaged acceleration and short oscillatory cycle. While the averaged radiated energy flux over a cycle is always positive as guaranteed by the quantum inequalities, an observer at a fixed angle may see short periods of negative radiated energy flux in each cycle of motion, which indicates that the radiation is squeezed. This reveals another resemblance between the detector theory and the moving-mirror model.

hep-th↗

arXiv2015

Entanglement Dynamics of Detectors in an Einstein Cylinder

We investigate how nontrivial topology affects the entanglement dynamics between a detector and a quantum field and between two detectors mediated by a quantum field. Nontrivial topology refers to both that of the base space and that of the bundle. Using a derivative-coupling Unruh-DeWitt-like detector model interacting with a quantum scalar field in an Einstein cylinder S1 (space) x R1 (time), we see the beating behaviors in the dynamics of the detector-field entanglement and the detector-detector entanglement, which distinguish from the results in the non-compact (1+1) dimensional Minkowski space. The beat patterns of entanglement dynamics in a normal and a twisted field with the same parameter values are different because of the difference in the spectrum of the field modes. In terms of the kinetic momentum of the detectors, we find that the contribution by the zero mode in a normal field to entanglement dynamics has no qualitative difference from those by the nonzero modes.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

Mirror-Field Entanglement in a Microscopic model for Quantum Optomechanics

We use a microscopic model, the Mirror-Oscillator-Field (MOF) model proposed by Galley, Behunin and Hu [Phys. Rev. A 87, 043832 (2013)], to describe the quantum entanglement between a mirror's center of mass (CoM) motion and a field. In contrast with the conventional approach where the mirror-field entanglement is understood as arising from the radiation pressure of an optical field inducing the motion of the mirror's CoM, the MOF model incorporates the dynamics of the internal degrees of freedom of the mirror that couple to the optical field directly. The major advantage in this approach is that it provides a self-consistent treatment of the three pertinent subsystems (the mirror's CoM motion, its internal degrees of freedom and the field) including their back-actions on each other, thereby giving a more accurate account of the quantum correlations between the individual subsystems. The optical and the mechanical properties of a mirror arising from its dynamical interaction with a quantum field are obtained without imposing any boundary conditions on the field additionally, as is done in the conventional way. As one of the new physical features that arise from this self-consistent treatment of the coupled optics and mechanics behavior we observe a coherent transfer of quantum correlations from the field to the mirror via its internal degrees of freedom. We find the quantum entanglement between the optical field and the mirror's center of mass motion upon coarse-graining over the internal degree of freedom. Further, we show that in certain parameter regimes the mirror-field entanglement is enhanced when the field interacts resonantly with the mirror's internal degree of freedom, a new result which highlights the importance of including the internal structure of the mirror in quantum optomechanical studies.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

Notes on nonlocal projective measurements in relativistic systems

In quantum mechanical bipartite systems, naive extensions of von Neumann's projective measurement to nonlocal variables can produce superluminal signals and thus violate causality. We analyze the projective quantum nondemolition state-verification in a two-spin system and see how the projection introduces nonlocality without entanglement. For the ideal measurements of "R-nonlocal" variables, we argue that causality violation can be resolved by introducing further restrictions on the post-measurement states, which makes the measurement "Q-nonlocal". After we generalize these ideas to quantum mechanical harmonic oscillators, we look into the projective measurements of the particle number of a single mode or a wave-packet of a relativistic quantum field in Minkowski space. It turns out that the causality-violating terms in the expectation values of the local operators, generated either by the ideal measurement of the "R-nonlocal" variable or the quantum nondemolition verification of a Fock state, are all suppressed by the IR and UV cutoffs of the theory. Thus relativistic quantum field theories with such projective measurements are effectively causal.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2013

Unruh Effect under Non-equilibrium conditions: Oscillatory motion of an Unruh-DeWitt detector

The Unruh effect refers to the thermal fluctuations a detector experiences while undergoing linear motion with uniform acceleration in a Minkowski vacuum. This thermality can be demonstrated by tracing the vacuum state of the field over the modes beyond the accelerated detector's event horizon. However, the event horizon is well-defined only if the detector moves with eternal uniform linear acceleration. This idealized condition cannot be fulfilled in realistic situations when the motion unavoidably involves periods of non-uniform acceleration. Many experimental proposals to test the Unruh effect are of this nature. Often circular or oscillatory motion, which lacks an obvious geometric description, is considered in such proposals. The proper perspective for theoretically going beyond, or experimentally testing, the Unruh-Hawking effect in these more general conditions has to be offered by concepts and techniques in non-equilibrium quantum field theory. In this paper we provide a detailed analysis of how an Unruh-DeWitt detector undergoing oscillatory motion responds to the fluctuations of a quantum field. Numerical results for the late-time temperatures of the oscillating detector are presented. We comment on the digressions of these results from what one would obtain from a naive application of Unruh's result.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2013

Relativistic Quantum Information in Detectors-Field Interactions

We review Unruh-DeWitt detectors and other models of detector-field interaction in a relativistic quantum field theory setting as a tool for extracting detector-detector, field-field and detector-field correlation functions of interest in quantum information science, from entanglement dynamics to quantum teleportation. We in particular highlight the contrast between the results obtained from linear perturbation theory which can be justified provided switching effects are properly accounted for, and the nonperturbative effects from available analytic expressions which incorporate the backreaction effects of the quantum field on the detector behaviour.

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