Rotating Unruh-DeWitt Detector in Minkowski Vacuum

TL;DR

This paper investigates how a rotating Unruh-DeWitt detector perceives the Minkowski vacuum, revealing that the detector's observed particles depend on the chosen surface for defining the Hamiltonian, with certain definitions resulting in no particle detection.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the detection of particles by a rotating Unruh-DeWitt detector depends on the surface used to define the Hamiltonian, clarifying previous discrepancies in the literature.

Findings

Detectors defined on surfaces of constant Minkowski time detect particles.

Detectors defined on surfaces normal to the detector's orbit detect no particles.

The effect persists even with superposed drift motion and linear acceleration.

Abstract

Response of a circularly rotating Unrh-DeWitt detector to the Minkowski vacuum is investigated. What the detector observes depends on the surface (three volume) to define it by the Hamiltonian. Detectors in the past literature were defined on a surface of a constant Minkowski time, and this is the reason why rotating detectors investigated so far resister particles. No particle is detected by a detector defined by the Hamiltonian on a surface normal to the detector's orbit, in agreement with the global analysis of vacua. A detector with drift motion superposed on the linear acceleration is also examined, to find the same effect.