Dynamical Casimir effect in curved spacetime

TL;DR

This paper investigates how boundary motion in curved spacetime induces particle creation via the dynamical Casimir effect, introducing a new calculation method and revealing resonances due to spacetime curvature, with potential experimental implications.

Contribution

It presents a novel method to calculate the dynamical Casimir effect in curved spacetime and explores particle creation resonances caused by spacetime curvature.

Findings

Discovery of resonances in particle creation due to Schwarzschild spacetime curvature

Development of a versatile calculation method for various trajectories and spacetimes

Potential enhancement of the effect in Bose-Einstein condensates

Abstract

A boundary undergoing relativistic motion can create particles from quantum vacuum fluctuations in a phenomenon known as the dynamical Casimir effect. We examine the creation of particles, and more generally the transformation of quantum field states, due to boundary motion in curved spacetime. We provide a novel method enabling the calculation of the effect for a wide range of trajectories and spacetimes. We apply this to the experimental scenario used to detect the dynamical Casimir effect, now adopting the Schwarzschild metric, and find novel resonances in particle creation as a result of the spacetime curvature. Finally, we discuss a potential enhancement of the effect for the phonon field of a Bose-Einstein condensate.