Unruh detectors, Feynman diagrams, acceleration and decay

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method to connect the transition rates of Unruh detectors under acceleration with those in stationary frames, enabling straightforward decay rate calculations for accelerated particles using quantum field theory.

Contribution

It presents a novel approach linking Unruh detector transition rates to decay rates in QFT, simplifying calculations for accelerated particle decay.

Findings

Transition rate of accelerated detector related to stationary rate

Decay rate of accelerated particles derived from QFT

Method applicable to first order in coupling constants

Abstract

We present a method for relating the transition rate of an accelerated Unruh-deWitt detector to the rate of the same detector when stationary in Minkowski space. Furthermore, we show that when using the detector as a model for decay, its transition rate can be related directly to the decay rate obtained from QFT. Combined this provides a straightforward method for calculating the decay rate of accelerated particles to first order in the coupling constants.