The Unruh effect in slow motion

TL;DR

This paper investigates conditions under which an accelerated quantum detector thermalizes in a multi-cavity setup, linking this to the Unruh effect, and proposes an experimental test for direct detection at lower accelerations.

Contribution

It provides a non-perturbative analysis of thermalization conditions in a novel multi-cavity configuration and proposes a feasible experimental test for the Unruh effect at lower accelerations.

Findings

Thermalization occurs under specific conditions related to cavity interactions.

The detector's temperature is proportional to its acceleration.

A new experimental setup is proposed for detecting the Unruh effect at lower speeds.

Abstract

We show under what conditions an accelerated detector (e.g., an atom/ion/molecule) thermalizes while interacting with the vacuum state of a quantum field in a setup where the detector's acceleration alternates sign across multiple optical cavities. We show (non-perturbatively) in what regimes the probe `forgets' that it is traversing cavities and thermalizes to a temperature proportional to its acceleration. Then we analyze in detail how this thermalization relates to the renowned Unruh effect. Finally, we use these results to propose an experimental testbed for the direct detection of the Unruh effect at relatively low probe speeds and accelerations, potentially orders of magnitude below previous proposals.