1109.2610 (Israel Klich)

On the entanglement of a quantum field with a dispersive medium    [PDF]

Israel Klich

In this Letter we study the entanglement of a quantum radiation field interacting with a dielectric medium. In particular, we describe the quantum mixed state of a field interacting with a dielectric through plasma and Drude models and show that these generate very different entanglement behavior, as manifested in the entanglement entropy of the field. We also present a formula for a "Casimir" entanglement entropy, i.e., the distance dependence of the field entropy. Finally, we study a toy model of the interaction between two plates. In this model, the field entanglement entropy is divergent; however, as in the Casimir effect, its distance-dependent part is finite, and the field matter entanglement is reduced when the objects are far.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1109.2610