Dynamics of quantum entanglement in de Sitter spacetime and thermal Minkowski spacetime

We investigate the dynamics of entanglement between two atoms in de Sitter spacetime and in thermal Minkowski spacetime. We treat the two-atom system as an open quantum system which is coupled to a conformally coupled massless scalar field in the de Sitter invariant vacuum or to a thermal bath in the Minkowski spacetime, and derive the master equation that governs its evolution. We compare the phenomena of entanglement creation, degradation, revival and enhancement for the de Sitter spacetime case with that for the thermal Minkowski spacetime case. We find that the entanglement dynamics of two atoms for these two spacetime cases behave quite differently. In particular, the two atoms interacting with the field in the thermal Minkowski spacetime (with the field in the de Sitter-invariant vacuum), under certain conditions, could be entangled, while they would not become entangled in the corresponding de Sitter case (in the corresponding thermal Minkowski case). Thus, although a single static atom in the de Sitter-invariant vacuum responds as if it were bathed in thermal radiation in a Minkowski universe, with the help of the different dynamic evolution behaviors of entanglement for two atoms one can in principle distinguish these two universes. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.