A Wavefunction Description for a Localized Quantum Particle in Curved Spacetimes

We reduce Dirac's spinor formalism for a spin 1/2 particle to a complex wavefunction description in curved spacetimes. We consider a localized fermionic particle in curved spacetimes and perform an expansion in terms of the acceleration and curvature around the center of mass of the system, generalizing the results of [Phys. Rev. D 22, 1922]. Under a non-relativistic approximation, one obtains a quantum description in a Hilbert space of complex wavefunctions defined in the rest space of the system. The wavefunction of the particle then evolves according to a modified Schr\"odinger equation associated with a symmetric Hamiltonian. When compared to the standard Schr\"odinger equation for a wavefunction, we obtain corrections in terms of the acceleration of the system's center of mass and curvature of spacetime along its trajectory. In summary, we provide a formalism for the use of a complex wavefunction to describe a localized quantum particle in curved spacetimes.Comment: 25 pages, 1 figure. RevTeX 4.1. V3. Improved the introduction, added references and fixed minor typo

The role of quantum degrees of freedom of relativistic fields in quantum information protocols

We analyze the differences between relativistic fields with or without quantum degrees of freedom in relativistic quantum information protocols. We classify the regimes where the existence of quantum degrees of freedom is necessary to explain the phenomenology of interacting quantum systems. We also identify the precise regimes where quantum fields can be well approximated by quantum-controlled classical fields in relativistic quantum information protocols. Our results can be useful to discern which features are fundamentally different in classical and quantum field theory.Comment: 16 pages + appendix, 9 figure

What gravity mediated entanglement can really tell us about quantum gravity

We revisit the Bose-Marletto-Vedral (BMV) table-top experimental proposal - which aims to witness quantum gravity using gravity mediated entanglement - analyzing the role of locality in the experiment. We first carry out a fully quantum modelling of the interaction of matter and gravity and then show in what way gravity mediated entanglement in the BMV experiment could be accounted for without appealing to quantum degrees of freedom of the gravitational field. We discuss what assumptions are needed in order to interpret the current BMV experiment proposals as a proof of quantum gravity, and also identify the modifications that a BMV-like experiment could have in order to serve as proof of quantum gravity without having to assume the existence of a local mediators in the gravitational field.Comment: 5 pages + appendices, 1 figure. V4: incorporated feedback, and improved presentatio

Harvesting entanglement from the gravitational vacuum

We study how quantum systems can harvest entanglement from the quantum degrees of freedom of the gravitational field. Concretely, we describe in detail the interaction of non-relativistic quantum systems with linearized quantum gravity, and explore how two spacelike separated probes can harvest entanglement from the gravitational field in this context. We provide estimates for the harvested entanglement for realistic probes which can be experimentally relevant in the future, since entanglement harvesting experiments can provide evidence for the existence of quantum degrees of freedom of gravity.Comment: 18 pages + appendices, 16 figures, revTex 4.

Carrollian Motion in Magnetized Black Hole Horizons

We revisit the motion of massless particles with anyonic spin in the horizon of Kerr--Newman geometry. As recently shown, such particles can move within the horizon of the black hole due to the coupling of charges associated with a 2-parametric central extension of the 2-dimensional Carroll group to the magnetic field generated by the black hole -- the so called ``anyonic spin-Hall effect''. We show that the previously computed magnetic field is not invariant under Carroll diffeomorphisms and find another result which respects these symmetries of the horizon. We also consider a more astrophysically relevant case of a (weakly charged) rotating back hole placed in a uniform magnetic field, which could, for instance, be induced by the surrounding plasma. We show that a qualitatively similar magnetic field assisted anyonic spin-Hall effect takes place, even in the absence of black hole rotation. The theoretical possibility of a motion induced by a magnetic monopole is also studied.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure

Fully Relativistic Entanglement Harvesting

We study the protocol of entanglement harvesting when the particle detectors that harvest entanglement from the field are replaced by fully relativistic quantum field theories. We show that two localized modes of the quantum field theories are able to harvest the same amount of leading order entanglement as two non-relativistic particle detectors, thus implying that QFT probes can generally harvest more entanglement than particle detectors. These results legitimize the use of particle detectors to study entanglement harvesting regardless of their internally non-relativistic nature.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures. RevTeX 4.

Ambient temperature versus ambient acceleration in the circular motion Unruh effect

It is well known that the experience of a linearly accelerated observer with acceleration a, interacting with a massless scalar field in its vacuum state in 3+1 Minkowski spacetime, is identical to that of a static observer interacting with a massless scalar field in a thermal state of temperature a/2π in 3+1 Minkowski spacetime. We study the robustness of this duality by comparing an observer undergoing circular motion in a thermal bath with an observer that undergoes circular motion around a linearly accelerated trajectory. We find that in most regimes, observers in these two cases experience the field in different ways, and are generally able to tell the difference between the two cases by measuring observables localized along their trajectories