2 research outputs found
Observable Unruh Effect and Unmasked Unruh Radiation
The Unruh effect, thereby an ideally accelerated quantum detector is
predicted to absorb thermalized virtual photons and re-emit real photons, is
significantly extended for laboratory accessible configurations. Using modern
influence functional techniques, we obtain explicit expressions describing the
excitation and relaxation of the quantum levels of an Unruh detector as a
general noninertial open quantum system. Remarkably, for controllable
periodical motions, an exact master equation is found for the Unruh detector
within the prevailing framework of quantum optics with a well-defined Unruh
temperature for given acceleration (), acceleration frequency
(), and transition frequency () of the detector. We
further show that the measurable Unruh temperatures and corresponding
transition rates are comparable or higher than their values for the ideally
accelerated cases if and have similar orders of
magnitude as . This allows us to select the transition rates of the
detector to unmask Unruh radiation against Larmor radiation which has been a
major competing noise. Our work suggests experiments with such settings may
directly confirm the Unruh effect within the current technology, based on which
a laboratory test of black hole thermodynamics will become possible.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure