Using Berry's phase to detect the Unruh effect at lower accelerations

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel method to detect the Unruh effect by measuring Berry's phase acquired by a detector in motion, enabling detection at significantly lower accelerations than previous approaches.

Contribution

It introduces a new technique using Berry's phase to observe the Unruh effect at accelerations 10^9 times smaller than prior methods.

Findings

Unruh effect causes a measurable Berry phase difference

Detection possible at accelerations as low as previous methods

Effect observable within nanosecond timescales

Abstract

We show that a detector acquires a Berry phase due to its motion in spacetime. The phase is different in the inertial and accelerated case as a direct consequence of the Unruh effect. We exploit this fact to design a novel method to measure the Unruh effect. Surprisingly, the effect is detectable for accelerations 10^9 times smaller than previous proposals sustained only for times of nanoseconds.