Abstract
Acceleration radiation—or Unruh radiation—the thermal radiation observed by an ever accelerating observer or detector, although having similarities to Hawking radiation, so far has proved extremely challenging to observe experimentally. One recent suggestion is that, in the presence of a mirror, constant acceleration of an atom in its ground state can excite the atom while at the same time cause it to emit a photon in an Unruh-type process. In this work we show that merely by shaking the atom, in simple harmonic motion for example, can have the same effect. We calculate the transition rate for this in first order perturbation theory and consider harmonic motion of the atom in the presence of a stationary mirror, or within a cavity or just in empty vacuum. For the latter we propose a circuit-QED potential implementation that yields transition rates of ∼10−4 Hz, which may be detectable experimentally.
Highlights
The study of quantum fields in curved space time has led to profound new discoveries including Hawking radiation and the Unruh [1] effect
The accelerated detector, rather than seeing the vacuum, instead experiences a thermal photon bath whose temperature T = a /(2πckB), where a is the proper acceleration of the TLS
One interpretation is that the virtual photons that normally dress the internal states of such a TLS are promoted to be real excitations due to the highly non-adiabatic nature of the acceleration
Summary
The study of quantum fields in curved space time has led to profound new discoveries including Hawking radiation and the Unruh [1] effect. In the following we derive closed compact expressions for the rate of photon production in the case of an oscillating TLS in the mirror a) presence of a mirror, or within cavity, or just coupled to vacuum.
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