The Unruh effect in slow motion
Abstract
We show under what conditions an accelerated detector (e.g., an atom/ion/molecule) thermalizes while interacting with the vacuum state of a quantum field in a setup where the detector's acceleration alternates sign across multiple optical cavities. We show (non-perturbatively) in what regimes the probe `forgets' that it is traversing cavities and thermalizes to a temperature proportional to its acceleration. Then we analyze in detail how this thermalization relates to the renowned Unruh effect. Finally, we use these results to propose an experimental testbed for the direct detection of the Unruh effect at relatively low probe speeds and accelerations, potentially orders of magnitude below previous proposals.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2011.08223,
title = {The Unruh effect in slow motion},
author = {Silas Vriend and Daniel Grimmer and Eduardo Martín-Martínez},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2011.08223},
year = {2021}
}
Comments
5 pages (+ 8 pages of accessory appendices) 4 figures. RevTeX 4.1