- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine
Access Provided by Xinjiang University

Physical Review D

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Access by Xinjiang University

Zero mode suppression of superluminal signals in light-matter interactions

Erickson Tjoa1,2,* and Eduardo Martín-Martínez3,2,4,†

  • 1Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada
  • 2Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada
  • 3Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada
  • 4Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, 31 Caroline St N, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 2Y5, Canada

  • *e2tjoa@uwaterloo.ca
  • †emartinmartinez@uwaterloo.ca
PDF

Phys. Rev. D 99, 065005 – Published 15 March, 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.99.065005

Abstract

We show how two Unruh-DeWitt detectors that do not couple to the zero mode of a quantum field can exchange information faster than the speed of light. We analyze the specific cases of periodic and Neumann boundary conditions in flat spacetime with arbitrary spatial dimensions, and we show that the superluminal signal strength is only polynomially suppressed with the distance to the light cone. Therefore, in any relativistic scenario modeling the light-matter interaction in which a zero mode is present, particle detectors should explicitly couple to the zero mode.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

References (38)

  1. W. G. Unruh, Phys. Rev. D 14, 870 (1976).
  2. A. G. S. Landulfo and G. E. A. Matsas, Phys. Rev. A 80, 032315 (2009).
  3. R. Lopp, E. Martín-Martínez, and D. N. Page, Classical Quantum Gravity 35, 224001 (2018).
  4. P. M. Alsing and I. Fuentes, Classical Quantum Gravity 29, 224001 (2012).
  5. S.-Y. Lin, C.-H. Chou, and B. L. Hu, Phys. Rev. D 91, 084063 (2015).
  6. S.-Y. Lin, Ann. Phys. (Amsterdam) 351, 773 (2014).
  7. B. L. Hu, S.-Y. Lin, and J. Louko, Classical Quantum Gravity 29, 224005 (2012).
  8. R. Sorkin, Impossible Measurements on Quantum Fields, in Directions in General Relativity: Proceedings of the 1993 International Symposium, Maryland: Papers in Honor of Dieter Brill, Vol. 2 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, 1956), pp. 293–305.
  9. D. M. T. Benincasa, L. Borsten, M. Buck, and F. Dowker, Classical Quantum Gravity 31, 075007 (2014).
  10. B. S. Dewitt, in General Relativity: An Einstein Centenary Survey, edited by S. W. Hawking and W. Israel (Cambridge University Press, New York, 1979), pp. 680–745.
  11. E. Martín-Martínez and P. Rodriguez-Lopez, Phys. Rev. D 97, 105026 (2018).
  12. A. Pozas-Kerstjens and E. Martín-Martínez, Phys. Rev. D 92, 064042 (2015).
  13. S. Takagi, Prog. Theor. Phys. Suppl. 88, 1 (1986).
  14. L. C. B. Crispino, A. Higuchi, and G. E. A. Matsas, Rev. Mod. Phys. 80, 787 (2008).
  15. E. Martín-Martínez, Phys. Rev. D 92, 104019 (2015).
  16. E. Martín-Martínez and J. Louko, Phys. Rev. D 90, 024015 (2014).
  17. S.-Y. Lin, C.-H. Chou, and B. L. Hu, J. High Energy Phys. 03 (2016) 047.
  18. P. Francesco, P. Mathieu, and D. Senechal, Conformal Field Theory (Island, Washington, D.C., 1996).
  19. B. Allen and A. Folacci, Phys. Rev. D 35, 3771 (1987).
  20. K. Kirsten and J. Garriga, Phys. Rev. D 48, 567 (1993).
  21. D. N. Page and X. Wu, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 11 (2012) 051.
  22. J. Bros, H. Epstein, and U. Moschella, Lett. Math. Phys. 93, 203 (2010).
  23. J. Louko and V. Toussaint, Phys. Rev. D 94, 064027 (2016).
  24. Y. K. Yazdi, J. High Energy Phys. 04 (2017) 140.
  25. S. Robles and J. Rodríguez-Laguna, J. Stat. Mech. 2017, 033105.
  26. E. G. Brown, Phys. Rev. A 88, 062336 (2013).
  27. W. Brenna, R. B. Mann, and E. Martín-Martínez, Phys. Lett. B 757, 307 (2016).
  28. D. Hümmer, E. Martín-Martínez, and A. Kempf, Phys. Rev. D 93, 024019 (2016).
  29. K. Lorek, D. Pecak, E. G. Brown, and A. Dragan, Phys. Rev. A 90, 032316 (2014).
  30. R. Haag and D. Kastler, J. Math. Phys. (N.Y.) 5, 848 (1964).
  31. M. Cliche and A. Kempf, Phys. Rev. A 81, 012330 (2010).
  32. R. H. Jonsson, E. Martín-Martínez, and A. Kempf, Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 110505 (2015).
  33. A. Pozas-Kerstjens, J. Louko, and E. Martín-Martínez, Phys. Rev. D 95, 105009 (2017).
  34. N. Birrell, N. Birrell, and P. Davies, Quantum Fields in Curved Space, Cambridge Monographs on Mathematical Physics (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, 1984).
  35. A. Blasco, L. J. Garay, M. Martín-Benito, and E. Martín-Martínez, Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 141103 (2015).
  36. A. Blasco, L. J. Garay, M. Martín-Benito, and E. Martín-Martínez, Phys. Rev. D 93, 024055 (2016).
  37. S. Sonego and V. Faraoni, J. Math. Phys. (N.Y.) 33, 625 (1992).
  38. V. Faraoni and E. Gunzig, Int. J. Mod. Phys. D 08, 177 (1999).

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. D 99, 065005– Published 15 March, 2019
  • Received 5 November 2018
Crossmark - Check for updates button

© 2019 American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation