We show that a detector acquires a Berry phase due to its motion in spacetime. The phase is different in the inertial and accelerated case as a direct consequence of the Unruh effect. We exploit this fact to design a novel method to measure the Unruh effect. Surprisingly, the effect is detectable for accelerations 10^9 times smaller than previous proposals sustained only for times of nanoseconds.
@article{arxiv.1012.2208,
title = {Using Berry's phase to detect the Unruh effect at lower accelerations},
author = {E. Martin-Martinez and I. Fuentes and R. B. Mann},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1012.2208},
year = {2011}
}
Comments
5 pages (including appendices) 2 figures, revtex 4. I.F. previously published as Fuentes-Guridi and Fuentes-Schuller. Journal reference added