A test of the circular Unruh effect using atomic electrons

Abstract

We propose a test for the circular Unruh effect using certain atoms - fluorine and oxygen. For these atoms the centripetal acceleration of the outer shell electrons implies an effective Unruh temperature in the range 1000 - 2000 K. This range of Unruh temperatures is large enough to shift the expected occupancy of the lowest energy level and nearby energy levels. In effect the Unruh temperature changes the expected pure ground state, with all the electrons in the lowest energy level, to a mixed state with some larger than expected occupancy of states near to the lowest energy level. Examining these atoms at low background temperatures and finding a larger than expected number of electrons in low lying excited levels, beyond what is expected due to the background thermal excitation, would provide experimental evidence for the Unruh effect.

16 pages, no figures Added discussion. To be published in EPJD

References in corpus (6)

• The Unruh effect and its applications
• Hawking radiation from ultrashort laser pulse filaments
• Signatures of the Unruh effect from electrons accelerated by ultra-strong laser fields
• On the relation between Unruh and Sokolov--Ternov effects
• Is there Unruh radiation?
• Modified dispersion relations and the response of the rotating Unruh-DeWitt detector

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Asymptotic states for stationary Unruh-DeWitt detectors
• Entanglement Enhanced Thermometry in the Detection of the Unruh Effect
• The Unruh effect in slow motion
• Zero-point excitation of a circularly moving detector in an atomic condensate and phonon laser dynamical instabilities
• Gravitons to Photons -- attenuation of gravitational waves
• Shaking photons from the vacuum: acceleration radiation from vibrating atoms
• Interaction between gravitational radiation and electromagnetic radiation
• Molecular entanglement as a signature of the Unruh effect