The Rotating Detector and Vacuum Fluctuations

Abstract

In this work we compare the quantization of a massless scalar field in an inertial frame with the quantization in a rotating frame. We used the Trocheries-Takeno mapping to relate measurements in the inertial and the rotating frames. An exact solution of the Klein-Gordon equation in the rotating coordinate system is found and the Bogolubov transformation between the inertial and rotating modes is calculated, showing that the rotating observer defines a vacuum state different from the Minkowski one. We also obtain the response function of an Unruh-De Witt detector coupled with the scalar field travelling in a uniformly rotating world-line. The response function is obtained for two different situations: when the quantum field is prepared in the usual Minkowski vacuum state and when it is prepared in the Trocheries-Takeno vacuum state. We also consider the case of an inertial detector interacting with the field in the rotating vacuum.

15 pages, notations for the Green's functions are corrected only. to appear in Classical and Quantum Gravity (2000)

References in corpus (1)

• A Rotating Quantum Vacuum

Cited by in corpus (11)

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• Extensive manipulation of transition rates and substantial population inversion of rotating atoms inside a cavity
• Rotation in classical zero-point radiation and in quantum vacuum
• Casimir effect for scalar field rotating on a disk
• Spontaneous excitation of a centripetally accelerated atom coupled to electromagnetic vacuum fluctuations near a reflecting boundary
• Thermal Effects of Rotation in Random Classical Zero-Point Radiation
• Periodicity, Thermal Effects, and Vacuum Force: Rotation in Random Classical Zero-Point Radiation