Quantum radiation by an Unruh-DeWitt detector in oscillatory motion

Abstract

Quantum radiated power emitted by an Unruh-DeWitt (UD) detector in linear oscillatory motion in (3+1)D Minkowski space, with the internal harmonic oscillator minimally coupled to a massless scalar field, is obtained non-perturbatively by numerical method. The signal of the Unruh-like effect experienced by the detector is found to be pronounced in quantum radiation in the highly non-equilibrium regime with high averaged acceleration and short oscillatory cycle, and the signal would be greatly suppressed by quantum interference when the averaged proper acceleration is sufficiently low. An observer at a fixed angle would see periods of negative radiated power in each cycle of motion, while the averaged radiated power over a cycle is always positive as guaranteed by the quantum inequalities. Coherent high harmonic generation and down conversion are identified in the detector's quantum radiation. Due to the overwhelming largeness of the vacuum correlators of the free field, the asymptotic reduced state of the harmonics of the radiation field is approximately a direct product of the squeezed thermal states.

arXiv comment30 pages, 10 figures, partly based on [arXiv:1601.07006]

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Cited by in corpus (8)

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• Fluctuation-Dissipation and Correlation-Propagation Relations in $(1+3)$D Moving Detector-Quantum Field Systems
• On the Unruh effect, trajectories and information
• Probing long-range properties of vacuum altered by uniformly accelerating two spatially separated Unruh-DeWitt detectors
• Late-time quantum radiation by a uniformly accelerated detector in de Sitter spacetime
• Relativistic single-electron wavepacket in quantum electromagnetic fields: Quantum coherence, correlations, and the Unruh effect
• Acceleration radiation from vibrating atoms in Schwarzschild spacetime