Entanglement of spatially separated quantum states is usually defined with respect to a reference frame provided by some external observer. Thus, if one wishes to localize the quantum information within a spatially separated entangled state, one must enact an entanglement extraction protocol also defined with respect to that external frame. Entanglement extraction for Gaussian ground states in such an external frame construction has been shown to require a minimum energy and is hence an interesting process for gravitational physics, where examinations of localization vs energy cost have a long history. General covariance, however, precludes dependence on external frames. In order to enact an extraction protocol in a generally covariant theory, dependence on the external reference frame must first be removed and the states made relational. We examine the implementation of an extraction protocol for Gaussian states, whose center of mass and relational degrees of freedom are entangled, in a relational toy model where translation invariance stands in for full diffeomorphism invariance. Constructing fully relational states and the corresponding extraction/localization can, in principle, be done in two ways. External frame position information can be removed through $G$-twirling over translations or one can spontaneously break the translation symmetry via the gradient of an auxiliary field, or $Z$-model. We determine the energetics of quantum information localization after the states have been made fully relational via both the $G$-twirl and $Z$-model. We also show one can obtain the $G$-twirl construction from a $Z$-model as a limit of positive operator valued measurements.

• Received 27 April 2023
• Accepted 31 May 2023

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.107.126020