Comment on "Background thermal contributions in testing the Unruh effect"

TL;DR

This paper critiques a previous claim about the Unruh effect, showing that thermal contributions can significantly influence detector transition probabilities at high energy scales, contrary to earlier assertions.

Contribution

It clarifies the conditions under which thermal effects impact the Unruh detector, correcting the previous claim by demonstrating the non-monotonic behavior at large energy scales.

Findings

Transition probability is not monotonically decreasing at large 5 4 E.

Thermal effects become significant for large 5 4 E.

Previous claim holds only for small 5 4 E.

Abstract

Costa and Matsas (gr-qc/9412030) claimed in their recent paper that a thermal bath does not affect substantially the transition probability for fast moving inertial Unruh detector. It is shown that their claim holds only for small $\beta \Delta E$. We show that, for large enough $\beta \Delta E$, the transition probability is not monotonically decreasing function of the detector's speed contrary to their claim.