We study the radiative process of two entangled two-level atoms uniformly accelerated in a thermal bath, coupled to a massless scalar field. First, by using the positive frequency Wightman function from the Minkowski modes with a Rindler transformation we provide the transition probabilities for the transitions from maximally entangled symmetric and anti-symmetric Bell states to the collective excited or ground state in (1 + 1) and (1 + 3) dimensions. We observe a possible case of anti-Unruh-like event in these transition probabilities, though the (1+1) and (1+3) dimensional results are not completely equivalent. We infer that thermal bath plays a major role in the occurrence of the anti-Unruh-like effect, as it is also present in the transition probabilities corresponding to a single detector in this case. Second, we have considered the Green’s functions in terms of the Rindler modes with the vacuum of Unruh modes for estimating the same. Here the anti-Unruh effect appears only for the transition from the anti-symmetric state to the collective excited or ground state. It is noticed that here the (1 + 1) and (1 + 3) dimensional results are equivalent, and for a single detector, we do not observe any anti-Unruh effect. This suggests that the entanglement between the states of the atoms is the main cause for the observed anti-Unruh effect in this case. In going through the investigation, we find that the transition probability for a single detector case is symmetric under the interchange between the thermal bath’s temperature and the Unruh temperature for Rindler mode analysis; whereas this is not the case for Minkowski mode. We further comment on whether this observation may shed light on the analogy between an accelerated observer and a real thermal bath. An elaborate investigation for the classifications of our observed anti-Unruh effects, i.e., either weak or strong anti-Unruh effect, is also thoroughly demonstrated.

The Hawking effect is one of the most extensively studied topics in modern physics. Yet it remains relatively under-explored within the framework of canonical quantization. The key difficulty lies in the fact that the Hawking effect is principally understood using the relation between the ingoing modes which leave past null infinity and the outgoing modes which arrive at future null infinity. Naturally, these modes are described using advanced and retarded null coordinates instead of the usual Schwarzschild coordinates. However, null coordinates do not lead to a true Hamiltonian that describes the evolution of these modes. In order to overcome these hurdles in a canonical formulation, we introduce here a set of near-null coordinates which allows one to perform an exact Hamiltonian-based derivation of the Hawking effect. This derivation opens up an avenue to explore the Hawking effect using different canonical quantization methods such as polymer quantization.

It is believed that extremal black holes do not emit Hawking radiation as understood by taking extremal limits of non-extremal black holes. However, it is debated whether one can make such conclusion reliably starting from an extremal black hole, as the associated Bogoliubov coefficients which relate ingoing and outgoing field modes do not satisfy the required consistency condition. We address this issue in a canonical approach firstly by presenting an exact canonical derivation of the Hawking effect for non-extremal Kerr black holes. Subsequently, for extremal Kerr black holes we show that the required consistency condition is satisfied in the canonical derivation and it produces zero number density for Hawking particles. We also point out the reason behind the reported failure of Bogoliubov coefficients to satisfy the required condition.

We investigate the effects of field temperature T(f) on the entanglement harvesting between two uniformly accelerated detectors. For their parallel motion, the thermal nature of fields does not produce any entanglement, and therefore, the outcome is the same as the non-thermal situation. On the contrary, T(f) affects entanglement harvesting when the detectors are in anti-parallel motion, i.e., when detectors A and B are in the right and left Rindler wedges, respectively. While for T(f) = 0 entanglement harvesting is possible for all values of A’s acceleration aA, in the presence of temperature, it is possible only within a narrow range of aA. In (1 + 1) dimensions, the range starts from specific values and extends to infinity, and as we increase T(f), the minimum required value of aA for entanglement harvesting increases. Moreover, above a critical value aA = ac harvesting increases as we increase T(f), which is just opposite to the accelerations below it. There are several critical values in (1 + 3) dimensions when they are in different accelerations. Contrary to the single range in (1 + 1) dimensions, here harvesting is possible within several discrete ranges of aA. Interestingly, for equal accelerations, one has a single critical point, with nature quite similar to (1 + 1) dimensional results. We also discuss the dependence of mutual information among these detectors on aA and T(f).

Entanglement harvesting from the quantum field is a well-known fact that, in recent times, is being rigorously investigated further in flat and different curved backgrounds. The usually understood formulation studies the possibility of two uncorrelated Unruh-DeWitt detectors getting entangled over time due to the effects of quantum vacuum fluctuations. Our current work presents a thorough formulation to realize the entanglement harvesting from non-vacuum background fluctuations. In particular, we further consider single excitation field states and a pair of inertial detectors, respectively, in (1 + 1) and (1 + 3) dimensions for this investigation. Our main observation asserts that entanglement harvesting is suppressed compared to the vacuum fluctuations in this situation. Our other observations confirm a non-zero individual detector transition probability in this background and vanishing entanglement harvesting for parallel co-moving detectors. We look into the characteristics of the harvested entanglement and discuss its dependence on different system parameters.