Dynamical maps for accelerating detectors

Abstract

We study the open quantum dynamics using the language of dynamical maps of a two-level particle detector that starts accelerating through Minkowski vacuum weakly coupled to a massless scalar field. We consider a detector with non-zero size and study its time evolution for the case where it is initially in inertial motion and subsequently a constant acceleration is switched on for a finite time. We study the dynamical maps that describe the evolution of such a system and show that the dynamics is not completely positive (NCP). The inertial motion prior to the acceleration can entangle the detector and field leading to the NCP dynamics. We examine the nature of the open dynamics during the accelerated phase as a function of the duration of prior inertial motion and the magnitude of the acceleration.