Massive Unruh particles cannot be directly observed

Abstract

We show that massive particles created in a relativistically accelerated reference frame, as predicted by the Unruh effect, can only be found in a tiny layer above the event horizon, whose thickness corresponds to a single Compton wavelength. This is beyond the reach of any detector and suggests that the Unruh effect may not ever be directly observed for massive fields. The case of massless particles is also examined, for which qualitatively different behaviour is observed in a low-acceleration regime, suggesting that an observation of the Unruh effect for massless particles is more promising.

References in corpus (5)

• The Unruh effect and its applications
• Effect of relativistic acceleration on localized two-mode Gaussian quantum states
• Spin and localization of relativistic fermions and uncertainty relations
• Effect of acceleration on localized fermionic Gaussian states: from vacuum entanglement to maximally entangled states
• Local and nonlocal observables in quantum optics

Cited by in corpus (8)

• The Trinity of Relational Quantum Dynamics
• The Unruh effect for mixing neutrinos
• Uniformly accelerated classical sources as limits of Unruh-DeWitt detectors
• Multimode theory of Gaussian states in uniformly accelerated frames
• Quest for a 'direct' observation of the Unruh effect with classical electrodynamics: In honor of Atsushi Higuchi 60th anniversary
• Particle Detectors, Cavities, and the Weak Equivalence Principle
• Quantum Simulation of Neutrino Oscillation and Dirac Particle Dynamics in Curved Space-time
• Observer-independence in the presence of a horizon