English

Moving Detectors in Cavities

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2008-11-26 v2

Abstract

We consider two-level detectors, coupled to a quantum scalar field, moving inside cavities. We highlight some pathological resonant effects due to abrupt boundaries, and decide to describe the cavity by switching smoothly the interaction by a time-dependent gate-like function. Considering uniformly accelerated trajectories, we show that some specific choices of non-adiabatic switching have led to hazardous interpretations about the enhancement of the Unruh effect in cavities. More specifically, we show that the emission/absorption ratio takes arbitrary high values according to the emitted quanta properties and to the transients undergone at the entrance and the exit of the cavity, {\it independently of the acceleration}. An explicit example is provided where we show that inertial and uniformly accelerated world-lines can even lead to the same ``pseudo-temperature''.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.gr-qc/0702041,
  title  = {Moving Detectors in Cavities},
  author = {Nathaniel Obadia},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:gr-qc/0702041},
  year   = {2008}
}

Comments

13 pages, 6 figures, version accepted in Phys.Rev.D