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Experimental simulation of the Unruh effect on an NMR quantum simulator

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Abstract

The Unruh effect is one of the most fundamental manifestations of the fact that the particle content of a field theory is observer dependent. However, there has been so far no experimental verification of this effect, as the associated temperatures lie far below any observable threshold. Recently, physical phenomena, which are of great experimental challenge, have been investigated by quantum simulations in various fields. Here we perform a proof-of-principle simulation of the evolution of fermionic modes under the Unruh effect with a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) quantum simulator. By the quantum simulator, we experimentally demonstrate the behavior of Unruh temperature with acceleration, and we further investigate the quantum correlations quantified by quantum discord between two fermionic modes as seen by two relatively accelerated observers. It is shown that the quantum correlations can be created by the Unruh effect from the classically correlated states. Our work may provide a promising way to explore the quantum physics of accelerated systems.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    FangZhou Jin, Xing Rong, Hui Zhou, MingJun Shi, Qi Zhang, ChenYong Ju, YiFu Cai, XinHua Peng & JiangFeng Du

  2. High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, 230031, China

    HongWei Chen

  3. Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    ShunLong Luo

Authors
  1. FangZhou Jin
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  2. HongWei Chen
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  3. Xing Rong
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  4. Hui Zhou
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  5. MingJun Shi
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  6. Qi Zhang
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  7. ChenYong Ju
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  8. YiFu Cai
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  9. ShunLong Luo
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  10. XinHua Peng
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  11. JiangFeng Du
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to HongWei Chen or JiangFeng Du.

Additional information

Contributed by JiangFeng Du (CAS academician)

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Jin, F., Chen, H., Rong, X. et al. Experimental simulation of the Unruh effect on an NMR quantum simulator. Sci. China Phys. Mech. Astron. 59, 630302 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11433-016-5779-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11433-016-5779-7

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