English

Effective master equations for two accelerated qubits

Quantum Physics 2023-01-25 v3 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

We revisit the problem involving two constantly accelerating Unruh-DeWitt detectors using Open Effective Field Theory methods. We study the time evolution of the joint detector state using a Markovian approximation which differs from the standard one taken in the literature. We show that this Markovian limit already implies the complete positivity of the dynamical evolution map without invoking the rotating wave approximation (RWA), in contrast to standard derivations of open system master equations. By calculating explicitly the domain of validity of this Markovian approximation, we argue that the lack of complete positivity in the usual microscopic derivation stems from the (subtle) fact that the Redfield equation is used outside its domain of validity. We give two well-known cases studied in the literature that violate the validity of the Markovian approximation: (i) the ``stacked trajectory'' limit (when detector trajectories are taken to be on top of one another), and (ii) large gap-to-acceleration ratio. Since Markovian dynamics with or without RWA can lead to different qualitative predictions for entanglement dynamics, our work emphasizes the need to properly track the regime of validity of all approximations.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2207.13750,
  title  = {Effective master equations for two accelerated qubits},
  author = {Greg Kaplanek and Erickson Tjoa},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2207.13750},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

20 + 3 pages, 3 Figures; RevTeX4-2; v3: edited and fixed typos to match published version

R2 v1 2026-06-25T01:17:13.666Z