Single and entangled atomic systems in thermal bath and the Fulling-Davies-Unruh effect

• Main Authors: Mukherjee, Arnab, Gangopadhyay, Sunandan, Majumdar, Archan S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 25.01.2024
• Subjects: Physics - General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology; Physics - Quantum Physics
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2402.03351

In this study, we revisit the Fulling-Davies-Unruh effect in the context of two-level single and entangled atomic systems that are static in a thermal bath. We consider the interaction between the systems and a massless scalar field, covering the scenarios of free space as well as within a cavity. Through the calculation of atomic transition rates and comparing with the results of [\textcolor{blue}{\textit{Phys. Rev. D 108 (2023) 085018}}], it is found that in free space there is an equivalence between the upward and downward transition rates of a uniformly accelerated atom with respect to an observer with that of a single atom which is static with respect to the observer and immersed in a thermal bath, as long as the temperature of the thermal bath matches the Unruh temperature. This equivalence between the upward and downward transition rates breaks down in the presence of a cavity. For two-atom systems, considering the initial state to be in a general pure entangled form, we find that in this case the equivalence between the upward and downward transition rates of the accelerated and static thermal bath scenarios holds only under specific limiting conditions in free space, but breaks down completely in a cavity setup. Though the ratio of the upward and downward transition rates in the thermal bath matches exactly with those of the accelerated systems in free space as well as inside the cavity.