Unruh-De Witt detectors, Bell-CHSH inequality and Tomita-Takesaki theory

Abstract

Abstract The interaction between Unruh-De Witt spin 1/2 detectors and a real scalar field is scrutinized by making use of the Tomita-Takesaki modular theory as applied to the Von Neumann algebra of the Weyl operators. The use of the modular theory enables to evaluate in an exact way the trace over the quantum field degrees of freedom. The resulting density matrix is employed to the study of the Bell-CHSH correlator. It turns out that, as a consequence of the interaction with the quantum field, the violation of the Bell-CHSH inequality exhibits a decreasing as compared to the case in which the scalar field is absent.