The Unruh Effect in Slow Motion
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 pr...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | article |
| Language: | EN |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2021
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doaj.org/article/a7981a6bd35e45d1bae1130f5686f807 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | 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, the same as it would in free space. 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. |
|---|