The Fulling-Unruh effect in general stationary accelerated frames

TL;DR

This paper explores the generalized Unruh effect in rotating and accelerating frames, analyzing vacuum states, thermodynamics, and detector responses, with implications for understanding quantum fields near rotating black holes.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive analysis of the Unruh effect in stationary accelerated frames with rotation, including vacuum definitions and thermodynamic interpretations.

Findings

Vacuum state depends on acceleration temperature and drift velocity.

Detector can be excited by positive and negative energy quanta.

Analogies drawn with rotating black hole physics.

Abstract

We study the generalized Unruh effect for accelerated reference frames that include rotation in addition to acceleration. We focus particularly on the case where the motion is planar, with presence of a static limit in addition to the event horizon. Possible definitions of an accelerated vacuum state are examined and the interpretation of the Minkowski vacuum state as a thermodynamic state is discussed. Such athermodynamic state is shown to depend on two parameters, the acceleration temperature and a drift velocity, which are determined by the acceleration and angular velocity of the accelerated frame. We relate the properties of Minkowski vacuum in the accelerated frame to the excitation spectrum of a detector that is stationary in this frame. The detector can be excited both by absorbing positive energy quanta in the "hot" vacuum state and by emitting negative energy quanta into the "ergosphere" between the horizon and the static limit. The effects are related to similar effects in the gravitational field of a rotating black hole.