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The
hypothetical Unruh Talk
effect (or sometimes FullingDaviesUnruh effect ) Edit
is the prediction that an
accelerating
observer
will
observe
black-body
radiation
where
an
inertial
observer
would
observe none. In
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history
Variants
other
words,
frame; in layman's terms,
Current
events the background appears to be warm from an accelerating reference
More
a Random
thermometer
waved
around
in
empty
space,
subtracting
any
other
contribution
to its temperature, will
article
record
a
non-zero
temperature.
The
ground
state
for
an
inertial
observer
is
seen
as
in thermodynamic
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equilibrium with a non-zero temperature by the uniformly accelerating observer.
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The Unruh effect was first described by Stephen Fulling in 1973, Paul Davies in 1975 and W. G. Unruh in
Interaction
1976.[1][2][3] It is currently not clear whether the Unruh effect has actually been observed, since the
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claimed
observations are under dispute. There is also some doubt about whether the Unruh effect implies
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theAbout
existence
of Unruh radiation.
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1 Contact
The equation
2 Explanation
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3 Calculations
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4 What
Otherlinks
implications
5 Related
Unruh changes
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6 Experimental observation of the Unruh effect
7 Special
See also
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8 Permanent
References
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9 Page
Further
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The
equation

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PDF
TheDownload
Unruhastemperature,
derived by William Unruh in 1976, is the effective temperature experienced by a
Printable
version
uniformly accelerating detector in a vacuum field. It is given by[4]
Languages
Catal
Deutsch

where
is the Boltzmann constant, is the reduced Planck constant, and is
is the local acceleration,
theEspaol
speed of light. Thus, for example, a proper acceleration of 2.5 10 20 ms 2 corresponds approximately
to a
temperature of 1K.
TheFranais
Unruh temperature has the same form as the Hawking temperature
of a black

hole,
which was derived (by Stephen Hawking) independently around the same time. It is, therefore,
Italiano
sometimes
called the HawkingUnruh temperature.[5]

Norsk nynorsk

Explanation
Polski

[ edit ]

Portugus

Unruh
demonstrated theoretically that the notion of vacuum depends on the path of the observer through

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Unruh effect - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

spacetime.
From the viewpoint of the accelerating observer, the vacuum of the inertial observer will look
Svenska
like
a state containing many particles in thermal equilibriuma warm gas. [6]

Although
the Unruh effect would initially be perceived as counter-intuitive, it makes sense if the word
vacuum is interpreted
Edit links
in a specific way.

In modern terms, the concept of "vacuum" is not the same as "empty space": space is filled with the
quantized fields that make up the universe. Vacuum is simply the lowest possible energy state of these
fields.
The energy states of any quantized field are defined by the Hamiltonian, based on local conditions,
including the time coordinate. According to special relativity, two observers moving relative to each other
must use different time coordinates. If those observers are accelerating, there may be no shared coordinate
system. Hence, the observers will see different quantum states and thus different vacua.
In some cases, the vacuum of one observer is not even in the space of quantum states of the other. In
technical terms, this comes about because the two vacua lead to unitarily inequivalent representations of
the quantum field canonical commutation relations. This is because two mutually accelerating observers
may not be able to find a globally defined coordinate transformation relating their coordinate choices.
An accelerating observer will perceive an apparent event horizon forming (see Rindler spacetime). The
existence of Unruh radiation could be linked to this apparent event horizon, putting it in the same
conceptual framework as Hawking radiation. On the other hand, the theory of the Unruh effect explains
that the definition of what constitutes a "particle" depends on the state of motion of the observer.
The free field needs to be decomposed into positive and negative frequency components before defining
the creation and annihilation operators. This can only be done in spacetimes with a timelike Killing vector
field. This decomposition happens to be different in Cartesian and Rindler coordinates (although the two are
related by a Bogoliubov transformation). This explains why the "particle numbers", which are defined in
terms of the creation and annihilation operators, are different in both coordinates.
The Rindler spacetime has a horizon, and locally any non-extremal black hole horizon is Rindler. So the
Rindler spacetime gives the local properties of black holes and cosmological horizons. The Unruh effect
would then be the near-horizon form of the Hawking radiation.

Calculations

[ edit ]

In special relativity, an observer moving with uniform proper acceleration a through Minkowski spacetime is
conveniently described with Rindler coordinates. The line element in Rindler coordinates is
where
, and where is related to the observer's proper time by
coordinates are related to the standard (Cartesian) Minkowski coordinates by

An observer moving with fixed

(here c = 1). Rindler

traces out a hyperbola in Minkowski space.

An observer moving along a path of constant is uniformly accelerating, and is coupled to field modes
which have a definite steady frequency as a function of . These modes are constantly Doppler shifted
relative to ordinary Minkowski time as the detector accelerates, and they change in frequency by enormous
factors, even after only a short proper time.
Translation in is a symmetry of Minkowski space: It is a boost around the origin. For a detector coupled
to modes with a definite frequency in
the boost operator is then the Hamiltonian. In the Euclidean field
theory, these boosts analytically continue to rotations, and the rotations close after
. So
The path integral for this Hamiltonian is closed with period

which guarantees that the H modes are

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Unruh effect - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

thermally occupied with temperature

. This is not an actual temperature, because H is dimensionless.
It is conjugate to the timelike polar angle which is also dimensionless. To restore the length dimension,
note that a mode of fixed frequency f in at position has a frequency which is determined by the square
root of the (absolute value of the) metric at , the redshift factor. From the equation for the line element
given above, it is easily seen that this is just . The actual inverse temperature at this point is therefore
Since the acceleration of a trajectory at constant
observed is

is equal to

, the actual inverse temperature

Restoring units yields

The temperature of the vacuum, seen by an isolated observer accelerating at the Earth's gravitational
acceleration of g = 9.81ms 2, is only 41020K. For an experimental test of the Unruh effect it is
planned to use accelerations up to 10 26 ms 2, which would give a temperature of about 400,000K. [7][8]
To put this in perspective, at a vacuum Unruh temperature of 3.9781020K, an electron would have a de
Broglie wavelength of h/( 3m ekT ) = 540.85m, and a proton at that temperature would have a wavelength
of 12.62m. If electrons and protons were in intimate contact in a very cold vacuum, they would have
rather long wavelengths and interaction distances.
At one astronomical unit from the sun, the acceleration is

. This gives an

Unruh temperature of 2.4110 23K. At that temperature, the electron and proton wavelengths are
21.994km and 513m, respectively. Even a uranium atom will have a wavelength of 2.2m at such a low
temperature.

Other implications

[ edit ]

The Unruh effect would also cause the decay rate of accelerating particles to differ from inertial particles.
Stable particles like the electron could have nonzero transition rates to higher mass states when
accelerating at a high enough rate.[9][10][11]

Unruh radiation

[ edit ]

Although Unruh's prediction that an accelerating detector would see a thermal bath is not controversial, the
interpretation of the transitions in the detector in the non-accelerating frame are. It is widely, although not
universally, believed that each transition in the detector is accompanied by the emission of a particle, and
that this particle will propagate to infinity and be seen as Unruh radiation.
The existence of Unruh radiation is not universally accepted. Some claim that it has already been
observed,[12] while others claim that it is not emitted at all.[13] While the skeptics accept that an
accelerating object thermalises at the Unruh temperature, they do not believe that this leads to the
emission of photons, arguing that the emission and absorption rates of the accelerating particle are
balanced.

Experimental observation of the Unruh effect

[ edit ]

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Unruh effect - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Researchers claim experiments that successfully detected the SokolovTernov effect [14] may also detect the
Unruh effect under certain conditions. [15]
Theoretical work in 2011 suggests that accelerating detectors might be used for the direct detection of the
Unruh effect with current technology.[16]

See also

[ edit ]

Dynamical Casimir effect

Hawking radiation
Pair production
Quantum information
Stochastic electrodynamics
Superradiance
Virtual particle

References

[ edit ]

1. ^ S.A. Fulling (1973). "Nonuniqueness of Canonical Field Quantization in Riemannian Space-Time". Physical Review
D 7 (10): 2850. Bibcode:1973PhRvD...7.2850F . doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.7.2850 .
2. ^ P.C.W. Davies (1975). "Scalar production in Schwarzschild and Rindler metrics". Journal of Physics A 8 (4): 609.
Bibcode:1975JPhA....8..609D . doi:10.1088/0305-4470/8/4/022 .
3. ^ W.G. Unruh (1976). "Notes on black-hole evaporation". Physical Review D 14 (4): 870.
Bibcode:1976PhRvD..14..870U . doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.14.870 .
4. ^ See equation 7.6 in W.G. Unruh (2001). "Black Holes, Dumb Holes, and Entropy". Physics meets Philosophy at the
Planck Scale . Cambridge University Press. pp.152173.
5. ^ P.M. Alsing, P.W. Milonni (2004). "Simplified derivation of the Hawking-Unruh temperature for an accelerated
observer in vacuum". American Journal of Physics 72 (12): 1524. arXiv:quant-ph/0401170v2 .
Bibcode:2004AmJPh..72.1524A . doi:10.1119/1.1761064 .
6. ^ Reinhold A. Bertlmann & Anton Zeilinger (2002). Quantum (un)speakables: From Bell to Quantum Information .
Springer. p.401ff. ISBN3-540-42756-2.
7. ^ M. Visser (2001). "Experimental Unruh radiation?". Newsletter of the APS Topical Group on Gravitation 17: 2044.
arXiv:gr-qc/0102044 . Bibcode:2001gr.qc.....2044P .
8. ^ H.C. Rosu (2001). "Hawking-like effects and Unruh-like effects: Toward experiments?". Gravitation and
Cosmology 7: 1. arXiv:gr-qc/9406012 . Bibcode:1994gr.qc.....6012R .
9. ^ R. Mueller (1997). "Decay of accelerated particles". Physical Review D 56 (2): 953960. arXiv:hep-th/9706016 .
Bibcode:1997PhRvD..56..953M . doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.56.953 .
10. ^ D.A.T. Vanzella, G.E.A. Matsas (2001). "Decay of accelerated protons and the existence of the Fulling-DaviesUnruh effect". Physical Review Letters 87 (15): 151301. arXiv:gr-qc/0104030 . Bibcode:2001PhRvL..87o1301V .
doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.87.151301 .
11. ^ H. Suzuki, K. Yamada (2003). "Analytic Evaluation of the Decay Rate for Accelerated Proton". Physical Review D
67 (6): 065002. arXiv:gr-qc/0211056 . Bibcode:2003PhRvD..67f5002S . doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.67.065002 .
12. ^ I.I. Smolyaninov (2005). "Photoluminescence from a gold nanotip as an example of tabletop Unruh-Hawking
radiation". Physics Letters A 372 (47): 70437045. arXiv:cond-mat/0510743 . Bibcode:2008PhLA..372.7043S .
doi:10.1016/j.physleta.2008.10.061 .
13. ^ G.W. Ford, R.F. O'Connell (2005). "Is there Unruh radiation?". Physics Letters A 350: 1726. arXiv:quantph/0509151 . Bibcode:2006PhLA..350...17F . doi:10.1016/j.physleta.2005.09.068 .
14. ^ Bell, J. S.; Leinaas, J. M. (7 February 1983). "Electrons as accelerated thermometers". Nuclear Physics B 212 (1):
131150. Bibcode:1983NuPhB.212..131B . doi:10.1016/0550-3213(83)90601-6 .
15. ^ E.T. Akhmedov, D. Singleton (2007). "On the physical meaning of the Unruh effect". JETP Letters 86 (9): 615
619. arXiv:0705.2525 . Bibcode:2007JETPL..86..615A . doi:10.1134/S0021364007210138 .
16. ^ E. Martn-Martnez, I. Fuentes, R. B. Mann (2011). "Using Berrys Phase to Detect the Unruh Effect at Lower
Accelerations". Physical Review Letters 107 (13): 131301. arXiv:1012.2208 . Bibcode:2011PhRvL.107m1301M .
doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.131301 .

Further reading

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Unruh effect - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

K.P. Thorne (1995). "Black holes evaporate". Black Holes and Time Warps (Reprint ed.). W. W. Norton
& Company. ISBN0-393-31276-3. See especially box 12.5 on p.444.
R.M. Wald (1994). "Chapter 5". Quantum Field Theory in Curved Spacetime and Black Hole
Thermodynamics . University of Chicago Press. ISBN0-226-87027-8.
L.C.B. Crispino, A. Higuchi, G.E.A. Matsas (2008). "The Unruh effect and its applications". Reviews of
Modern Physics 80 (3): 787. arXiv:0710.5373 . Bibcode:2008RvMP...80..787C .
doi:10.1103/RevModPhys.80.787 .

External links
Unruh effect
Matsas.

[ edit ]

- A Scholarpedia

Categories: Thermodynamics

article about the same topic written by Stephen Fulling and George

Quantum field theory

Theory of relativity

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