Near-horizon aspects of acceleration radiation by free fall of an atom into a black hole

TL;DR

This paper explores how a freely falling atom near a black hole detects acceleration radiation, emphasizing the role of near-horizon physics and conformal quantum mechanics in black hole thermodynamics.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the acceleration radiation detected by the atom is driven by near-horizon conformal physics, linking quantum optics with black hole thermodynamics.

Findings

Radiation follows a Planck distribution at Hawking temperature.

Near-horizon conformal quantum mechanics underpins the radiation process.

Acceleration radiation is influenced by the black hole's near-horizon geometry.

Abstract

A two-level atom freely falling towards a Schwarzschild black hole was recently shown to detect radiation in the Boulware vacuum in an insightful paper [M. O. Scully et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 115, 8131 (2018)]. The two-state atom acts as a dipole detector and its interaction with the field can be modeled using a quantum optics approach. The relative acceleration between the scalar field and the detector causes the atom to detect the radiation. In this paper, we show that this acceleration radiation is driven by the near-horizon physics of the black hole. This insight reinforces the relevance of near-horizon conformal quantum mechanics for all the physics associated with the thermodynamic properties of the black hole. We additionally highlight the conformal aspects of the radiation that is given by a Planck distribution with the Hawking temperature.