Unruh-DeWitt detector response along static and circular geodesic trajectories for Schwarzschild-AdS black holes

TL;DR

This paper introduces new numerical methods to analyze the response of particle detectors in curved spacetimes, specifically studying Hawking radiation and quasinormal modes in Schwarzschild-AdS black holes.

Contribution

The paper develops novel numerical techniques for integrating the Wightman function in complex backgrounds, enabling detailed analysis of detector responses in curved spacetimes.

Findings

Detector response peaks at quasinormal mode frequencies

Response rates differ for static and circular geodesic trajectories

Methods can be extended to more complex spacetime scenarios

Abstract

We present novel methods to numerically address the problem of characterizing the response of particle detectors in curved spacetimes. These methods allow for the integration of the Wightman function, at least in principle, in rather general backgrounds. In particular we will use this tool to further understand the nature of conformal massless scalar Hawking radiation from a Schwarzschild black hole in anti-de Sitter space. We do that by studying an Unruh-DeWitt detector at rest above the horizon and in circular geodesic orbit. The method allows us to see that the response rate shows peaks at certain characteristic frequencies, which correspond to the quasinormal modes (QNMs) of the space-time. It is in principle possible to apply these techniques to more complicated and interesting physical scenarios, e.g. geodesic infall or multiple detector entanglement evolution, or the study of the behaviour of quantum correlations in spacetimes with black hole horizons.