Time Dependence of Particle Creation from Accelerating Mirrors

TL;DR

This paper examines how particle creation varies over time in a two-dimensional spacetime with an accelerating mirror, analyzing both known and new mirror trajectories using wave packets for detailed temporal resolution.

Contribution

It introduces four new analytically describable mirror trajectories and investigates their time-dependent particle production using wave packet analysis.

Findings

Most trajectories show good temporal resolution of particle creation.

Analytical expressions derived for ancillary properties of new trajectories.

Time dependence of particle production can be effectively analyzed with wave packets.

Abstract

Particle production due to a quantized, massless, minimally coupled scalar field in two-dimensional flat spacetime with an accelerating mirror is investigated, with a focus on the time dependence of the process. We analyze first the classes of trajectories previously investigated by Carlitz and Willey and by Walker and Davies. We then analyze four new classes of trajectories, all of which can be expressed analytically and for which several ancillary properties can be derived analytically. The time dependence is investigated through the use of wave packets for the modes of the quantized field that are in the out vacuum state. It is shown for most of the trajectories studied that good time resolution of the particle production process can be obtained.