Continuous variable methods in relativistic quantum information: Characterization of quantum and classical correlations of scalar field modes in noninertial frames

We review a recently introduced unified approach to the analytical quantification of correlations in Gaussian states of bosonic scalar fields by means of Rényi-2 entropy. This allows us to obtain handy formulae for classical, quantum, total correlations, as well as bipartite and multipartite entanglement. We apply our techniques to the study of correlations between two modes of a scalar field as described by observers in different states of motion. When one or both observers are in uniform acceleration, the quantum and classical correlations are degraded differently by the Unruh effect, depending on which mode is detected. Residual quantum correlations, in the form of quantum discord without entanglement, may survive in the limit of an infinitely accelerated observer Rob, provided they are revealed in a measurement performed by the inertial Alice. © 2012 IOP Publishing Ltd.