Vacuum effects in a vibrating cavity: time refraction, dynamical Casimir effect, and effective Unruh acceleration

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the equivalence of time refraction and dynamical Casimir effects in a vibrating cavity, predicts their instability causing photon growth, and introduces an effective Unruh acceleration to compare radiation efficiencies.

Contribution

It establishes the physical equivalence of time refraction and dynamical Casimir effects and introduces the concept of an effective Unruh acceleration for these phenomena.

Findings

Time refraction and dynamical Casimir effect are physically equivalent.

Both effects are predicted to be unstable with exponential photon growth.

An effective Unruh acceleration is proposed to compare radiation efficiencies.

Abstract

Two different quantum processes are considered in a perturbed vacuum cavity: time refraction and dynamical Casimir effect. They are shown to be physically equivalent, and are predicted to be unstable, leading to an exponential growth in the number of photons created in the cavity. The concept of an effective Unruh acceleration for these processes is also introduced, in order to make a comparison in terms of radiation efficiency, with the Unruh radiation associated with an accelerated frame in unbounded vacuum.