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Phys. Rev. A 80, 052304 (2009) [5 pages]

Quantum discord between relatively accelerated observers

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Animesh Datta*
Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Imperial College, 53 Prince’s Gate, London SW7 2PG, United Kingdom and QOLS, The Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2BW, United Kingdom

Received 20 May 2009; published 4 November 2009

We calculate the quantum discord between two free modes of a scalar field, which start in a maximally entangled state and then undergo a relative constant acceleration. In a regime where there is no distillable entanglement due to the Unruh effect, we show that there is a finite amount of quantum discord, which is a measure of purely quantum correlations in a state over and above quantum entanglement. Even in the limit of infinite acceleration of the observer detecting one of the modes, we provide evidence for a nonzero amount of purely quantum correlations. We discuss our result in the context of secure quantum communications involving eavesdroppers in noninertial frames.

© 2009 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.80.052304
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevA.80.052304
PACS:
03.67.Mn, 04.62.+v

*a.datta@imperial.ac.uk