TY - JOUR

T1 - Entanglement and open systems in algebraic quantum field theory

AU - Clifton, Rob

AU - Halvorson, Hans

N1 - Funding Information: The authors are extremely grateful to Paul Busch (for helpful discussions about operations), Jeremy Butterfield (for helping us to clarify our critique of Redhead's discussion of the operational implications of cyclicity), Reinhard Werner (for filling in for us the argument of Eqn (10) ), Fred Kronz (for urging us to include the final two sentences of note 1), Michael Redhead (for reminding us of the facts cited in note 14), and an anonymous referee (for prompting our inclusion of note 4). R.K.C. also wishes to thank All Souls College, Oxford for support under a Visiting Fellowship.

PY - 2001

Y1 - 2001

N2 - Entanglement has long been the subject of discussion by philosophers of quantum theory, and has recently come to play an essential role for physicists in their development of quantum information theory. In this paper we show how the formalism of algebraic quantum field theory (AQFT) provides a rigorous framework within which to analyse entanglement in the context of a fully relativistic formulation of quantum theory. What emerges from the analysis are new practical and theoretical limitations on an experimenter's ability to perform operations on a field in one spacetime region that can disentangle its state from the state of the field in other spacelike-separated regions. These limitations show just how deeply entrenched entanglement is in relativistic quantum field theory, and yield a fresh perspective on the ways in which the theory differs conceptually from both standard non-relativistic quantum theory and classical relativistic field theory.

AB - Entanglement has long been the subject of discussion by philosophers of quantum theory, and has recently come to play an essential role for physicists in their development of quantum information theory. In this paper we show how the formalism of algebraic quantum field theory (AQFT) provides a rigorous framework within which to analyse entanglement in the context of a fully relativistic formulation of quantum theory. What emerges from the analysis are new practical and theoretical limitations on an experimenter's ability to perform operations on a field in one spacetime region that can disentangle its state from the state of the field in other spacelike-separated regions. These limitations show just how deeply entrenched entanglement is in relativistic quantum field theory, and yield a fresh perspective on the ways in which the theory differs conceptually from both standard non-relativistic quantum theory and classical relativistic field theory.

KW - Entanglement

KW - Local Operation

KW - Quantum Field

KW - Von Neumann Algebra.

U2 - 10.1016/S1355-2198(00)00033-2

DO - 10.1016/S1355-2198(00)00033-2

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:0039299328

VL - 32

SP - 1

EP - 31

JO - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics

JF - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics

SN - 1355-2198

IS - 1

ER -