Quantum parameter estimation in the Unruh–DeWitt detector model

Relativistic effects on the precision of quantum metrology for particle detectors, such as two-level atoms are studied. The quantum Fisher information is used to estimate the phase sensitivity of atoms in non-inertial motions or in gravitational fields. The Unruh–DeWitt model is applicable to the investigation of the dynamics of a uniformly accelerated atom weakly coupled to a massless scalar vacuum field. When a measuring device is in the same relativistic motion as the atom, the dynamical behavior of quantum Fisher information as a function of Rindler proper time is obtained. It is found out that monotonic decrease in phase sensitivity is characteristic of dynamics of relativistic quantum estimation. The origin of the decay of quantum Fisher information is the thermal bath that the accelerated detector finds itself in due to the Unruh effect. To improve relativistic quantum metrology, we reasonably take into account two reflecting plane boundaries perpendicular to each other. The presence of the reflecting boundary can shield the detector from the thermal bath in some sense.     

Gravitational Corrections to Energy-Levels of a Hydrogen Atom

The first-order perturbations of the energy levels of a hydrogen atom in central internal gravitational field are investigated. The internal gravitational field is produced by the mass of the atomic nucleus. The energy shifts are calculated for the relativistic 1S, 2S, 2P, 3S, 3P, 3D, 4S, and 4P levels with Schwarzschild metric. The calculated results show that the gravitational corrections are sensitive to the total angular momentum quantum number.     

Neutron interference in the Earth’s gravitational field

This work relates to the famous experiments, performed in 1975 and 1979 by Werner et al., measuring neutron interference and neutron Sagnac effects in the earth’s gravitational field. Employing the method of Stodolsky in its weak field approximation, explicit expressions are derived for the two phase shifts, which turn out to be in agreement with the experiments and with the previously obtained expressions derived from semi-classical arguments: these expressions are simply modified by relativistic correction factors.     

The parity operator in quantum optical metrology

Photon number states are assigned a parity of +1 if their photon number is even and a parity of ?1 if odd. The parity operator, which is minus one to the power of the photon number operator, is a Hermitian operator and thus a quantum mechanical observable although it has no classical analogue, the concept being meaningless in the context of classical light waves. In this paper we review work on the application of the parity operator to the problem of quantum metrology for the detection of small phase shifts with quantum optical interferometry using highly entangled field states such as the so-called N00N states, and states obtained by injecting twin Fock states into a beam splitter. With such states and with the performance of parity measurements on one of the output beams of the interferometer, one can breach the standard quantum limit, or shot-noise limit, of sensitivity down to the Heisenberg limit, the greatest degree of phase sensitivity allowed by quantum mechanics for linear phase shifts. Heisenberg limit sensitivities are expected to eventually play an important role in attempts to detect gravitational waves in interferometric detection systems such as LIGO and VIRGO.     

Quantization effects in the plasma universe

It is suggested that a unification of the morphology of the solar system, anomalous intrinsic red shifts of quasars and galaxies, the structure of the hydrogen atom, the Einstein equations of general relativity, and Maxwell's equations can be accomplished by a basic consideration of the minimum-action states of cosmic and/or virtual vacuum field plasmas. A formalism of planetary formation theory leads naturally to a generalization which describes relativistic gravitational field theory in terms of a `pregeometry'. A virtual plasma associated with the vacuum state is postulated. It is demonstrated that the relaxed state of the virtual plasma underlies Einstein's field equation and predicts the proper form for the effective gravitational potential generated by the Schwarzschild solution of those equations. A further extension of the theory demonstrates that it also predicts the structure of the hydrogen atom described in terms of the Schrodinger equation of quantum mechanics. These concepts are applied in an attempt to explain the quantized anomalous red shifts in related galaxies as observed by H. Arp and J.H. Sulentic (1985). A possible unified field theory is suggested based on the above-mentioned concepts     

On general-relativistic and gauge field theories

The fundamental open questions of general relativity theory are the unification of the gravitational field with other fields, aiming at a unified geometrization of physics, as well as the renormalization of relativistic gravitational theory in order to obtain their self-consistent solutions. These solutions are to furnish field-theoretic particle models—a problem first discussed by Einstein. In addition, we are confronted with the issue of a coupling between gravitational and matter fields determined (not only) by Einstein's principle of equivalence, and also with the question of the geometric meaning of a gravitational quantum theory. In our view, all these problems are so closely related that they warrant a general solution. We treat mainly the concepts suggested by Einstein and Weyl.     

Thermodynamics of relativistic quantum fields confined in cavities

We investigate the quantum thermodynamical properties of localised relativistic quantum fields, and how they can be used as quantum thermal machines. We study the efficiency and power of energy transfer between the classical gravitational degrees of freedom, such as the energy input due to the motion of boundaries or an impinging gravitational wave, and the excitations of a confined quantum field. We find that the efficiency of energy transfer depends dramatically on the input initial state of the system. Furthermore, we investigate the ability of the system to extract energy from a gravitational wave and store it in a battery. This process is inefficient in optical cavities but is significantly enhanced when employing trapped Bose Einstein condensates. We also employ standard fluctuation results to obtain the work probability distribution, which allows us to understand how the efficiency is related to the dissipation of work. Finally, we apply our techniques to a setup where an impinging gravitational wave excites the phononic modes of a Bose Einstein condensate. We find that, in this case, the percentage of energy transferred to the phonons approaches unity after a suitable amount of time. These results give a quantitative insight into the thermodynamic behaviour of relativistic quantum fields confined in cavities.     

Classical Gravitational Interactions and Gravitational Lorentz Force

In quantum gauge theory of gravity, the gravitational field is represented by gravitational gauge field.The field strength of gravitational gauge field has both gravitoelectric component and gravitomagnetic component. In classical level, gauge theory of gravity gives classical Newtonian gravitational interactions in a relativistic form. Besides,it gives gravitational Lorentz force, which is the gravitational force on a moving object in gravitomagnetic field The direction of gravitational Lorentz force is not the same as that of classical gravitational Newtonian force. Effects of gravitational Lorentz force should be detectable, and these effects can be used to discriminate gravitomagnetic field from ordinary electromagnetic magnetic field.     

Classical Gravitational Interactions and Gravitational Lorentz Force

In quantum gauge theory of gravity, the gravitational field is represented by gravitational gauge field. The field strength of gravitational gauge field has both gravitoelectric component and gravitomagnetic component. In classical level, gauge theory of gravity gives classical Newtonian gravitational interactions in a relativistic form. Besides, it gives gravitational Lorentz force, which is the gravitational force on a moving object in gravitomagnetic field. The direction of gravitational Lorentz force is not the same as that of classical gravitational Newtonian force. Effects of gravitational Lorentz force should be detectable, and these effects can be used to discriminate gravitomagnetic field from ordinary electromagnetic magnetic field.     

LETTER: Some Remarks on the Neutrino Oscillation Phase in a Gravitational Field

The weak gravitational field expansion method to account for the gravitationally induced neutrino oscillation effect is critically examined, then it is shown that the splitting of the neutrino phase into a "kinematic" and a "gravitational" phase is not always possible because the relativistic factor modifies the particle interference phase splitting condition in a gravitational field.     

Berry’s phase for a spin 1/2 particle in the presence of topological defects

The relativistic quantum dynamics of a spinorial quantum particle in the presence of a chiral conical background is investigated. We study the gravitational Berry geometric quantum phase acquired by a spin 1/2 particle in the chiral cosmic string spacetime. We obtain the result that this phase depends on the global features of this spacetime. We also consider the case that a string possesses an internal magnetic flux and obtain the geometric quantum phase in this case. The spacetime of multiple chiral cosmic strings is considered and the relativistic Berry quantum phase is also obtained.     

Gravitational radiation antennas using the Sagnac effect

A new class of gravitational antennas that utilize the general relativistic Sagnac effect is proposed. These antennas may be more efficient than the Weber bar by a factor of (c/v_s)⁴ 10¹⁹, wherev _sis the velocity of sound in the bar. A specific case of such an antenna consisting of a superfluid helium Josephson interferometer is considered. A general relativistic theory of the interaction of the superfluid with the gravitational field is given. Using this theory, the phase shift due to a gravitational plane wave on one such antenna is obtained. More generally, the proposed interferometer involves the interplay of general relativity and quantum theory and may afford the possibility of testing general relativity in the laboratory at the quantum mechanical level. The possibility of detecting gravitons, assuming nearly unit coupling efficiency for the antenna, is explored.This essay received the second award from the Gravity Research Foundation for the year 1981-Ed.Research was supported by NSF grant No. PHY 79-13146.Research was supported by NSF grant No. ECS-8009834.     

Quantum Gauge General Relativity

Based on gauge principle, a new model on quantum gravity is proposed in the frame work of quantum gauge theory of gravity. The model has local gravitational gauge symmetry, and the field equation of the gravitational gauge field is just the famous Einstein‘s field equation. Because of this reason, this model is called quantum gauge general relativity, which is the consistent unification of quantum theory and general relativity. The model proposed in this paper is a perturbatively renormalizable quantum gravity, which is one of the most important advantage of the quantum gauge general relativity proposed in this paper. Another important advantage of the quantum gauge general relativity is that it can explain both classical tests of gravity and quantum effects of gravitational interactions, such as gravitational phase effects found in COW experiments and gravitational shielding effects found in Podkletnov experiments.     

High-frequency surface waves in quantum plasmas with electrons relativistic degenerate and exchange-correlation effects

The propagation characteristics of high-frequency surface waves are studied in spin-1/2 quantum plasmas by considering the electron relativistic degenerate and exchange-correlation effects. Using the quantum fluid equations of magnetoplasmas in the presence of the quantum Bohm potential, spin magnetization energy, relativistic degenerate pressure, and exchange-correlation effects, a generalized dispersion relation is derived. The analytical and numerical results show that the relativistic degenerate and exchange-correlation effects significantly modify the propagation properties of high-frequency surface waves. It is found that under the influence of exchange-correlation effects, the frequency spectrum of high-frequency surface waves will be down-shifted. It is also indicated that the dispersion curve shifts up with the increase of relativistic gamma factor. Furthermore, the phase speed of the high-frequency surface waves increases with increasing electron number density. The current research is helpful to understand the propagation of the high-frequency surface waves in quantum plasmas, such as those in dense astrophysical environment.     

Stochastic quantization method for spinning particles in a gravitational plane wave field

The exact and analytic Green functions for spinning relativistic particles in interaction with a gravitational plane wave field are obtained within the Stochastic Quantization Method of Parisi and Wu. We have separated the classical calculations from those related to the quantum fluctuations. The problem has been solved by using a perturbative treatment via the Langevin equation relying on phase and configuration spaces formulation.      

Limits of applicability of Gupta's theory

The applicability of the quantum theory of a weak gravitational field (Gupta's theory) is examined on the basis of the quasiclassical generally relativistic point of view. It is shown that in standard quantum theory the energy of a particle cannot be arbitrary but is bounded both below and above. These bounds arise because it is impossible to treat the region of interaction of elementary particles as a part of flat space. The lower limit depends on the curvature tensor of the external gravitational field, while the upper is determined by the gravitational field of the particle itself.     

Interactions of ion acoustic multi-soliton and rogue wave with Bohm quantum potential in degenerate plasma

This work investigates the interactions among solitons and their consequences in the production of rogue waves in an unmagnetized plasmas composing non-relativistic as well as relativistic degenerate electrons and positrons, and inertial non-relativistic helium ions. The extended Poincare′–Lighthill–Kuo(PLK) method is employed to derive the two-sided Korteweg–de Vries(Kd V) equations with their corresponding phase shifts. The nonlinear Schr o¨dinger equation(NLSE) is obtained from the modified Kd V(m Kd V) equation, which allows one to study the properties of the rogue waves. It is found that the Fermi temperature and quantum mechanical effects become pronounced due to the quantum diffraction of electrons and positrons in the plasmas. The densities and temperatures of the helium ions, degenerate electrons and positrons, and quantum parameters strongly modify the electrostatic ion acoustic resonances and their corresponding phase shifts due to the interactions among solitons and produce rogue waves in the plasma.