Probing Unruh Radiation and the Equivalence Principle with Unruh–DeWitt Detectors
Oct, 202238 pages
- Published: Oct, 2022
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Abstract: (submitter)
Unruh–DeWitt detectors are quantum systems, which in their simplest form have two energy states, which can be used to probe whether or not particles are created by a given space-time background or by a particular path through a space-time. Unruh–DeWitt detectors can be used to probe phenomenon such as Unruh radiation (particle creation as seen by an accelerating observer), Hawking radiation (particle creation by a black hole) and Hawking–Gibbons radiation (particle creation in a de Sitter cosmological space-time). In this work, we first show that the natural Unruh–DeWitt detector of electrons in storage rings may already have experimentally confirmed the existence of Unruh radiation, but with the usual uniform linear acceleration replaced by uniform circular acceleration. In the lab frame, this effect is the already observed Sokolov–Ternov effect, while in the non-inertial frame of the electron the explanation is in terms of the Unruh effect. Next we show how the Unruh–DeWitt detector can be used to probe the equivalence principle. We compare the details of how the detector responses to Schwarzschild space-time, versus Rindler space-time (the space-time seen by a linearly accelerating observer). In both space-times, the Unruh–DeWitt detector registers particle, but the details are different. This allows one to distinguish, via a local measurement, between a gravitational field and acceleration, and thus leads to a violation of the equivalence principle.References(65)
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