English

An advanced undergraduate derivation of acceleration thermality

Classical Physics 2026-07-09 v1

Abstract

The thermal radioactivity of beta-decay photons, described by a 1D Planck distribution, can be modeled as classical radiation emitted by an accelerated electron. Here, we present the basics of the out-of-equilibrium computation to illustrate acceleration thermality. Suitable for advanced undergraduate calculations, we demonstrate that an exactly soluble non-uniformly accelerated trajectory enables spectral analysis of the emitted photons, facilitates time evolution, and reveals Planckian radiation.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2607.08184,
  title  = {An advanced undergraduate derivation of acceleration thermality},
  author = {Michael R. R. Good},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.08184},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

10 pages, 1 figure