Quantum accelerometer: distinguishing inertial Bob from his accelerated twin Rob by a local measurement

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that local measurements on a quantum field can distinguish between inertial and accelerated frames in the non-relativistic regime, especially using highly excited massive fields, advancing quantum inertial sensing.

Contribution

It introduces a method to differentiate inertial from accelerated motion using local quantum measurements, highlighting the role of highly excited massive fields.

Findings

Inertial and accelerated scenarios are distinguishable via local measurements in the non-relativistic regime.

Highly excited massive fields enable detection of non-inertialness.

The approach advances quantum inertial sensing techniques.

Abstract

Single quantum system, such as Unruh-DeWitt detector, can be used to determine absolute acceleration by local measurements on a quantum field. To show this, we consider two kinematically indistinguishable scenarios: an inertial observer, Bob, measuring the field of an uniformly accelerated cavity, and his non-inertial twin Rob accelerating and making measurements in a stationary cavity. We find that these scenarios can be distinguished in the non-relativistic regime only by measurements on highly excited massive fields, allowing one to detect non-inertialness of the reference frame.