Shaking photons from the vacuum: acceleration radiation from vibrating atoms
Acceleration radiation—or Unruh radiation—the thermal radiation observed by an ever accelerating observer or detector, although having similarities to Hawking radiation, so far has proved extremely challenging to observe experimentally. One recent suggestion is that, in the presence of a mirror, con...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2020-01-01
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| Series: | New Journal of Physics |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/ab7bd5 |
| _version_ | 1797750261094023168 |
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| author | Brian P Dolan Aonghus Hunter-McCabe Jason Twamley |
| author_facet | Brian P Dolan Aonghus Hunter-McCabe Jason Twamley |
| author_sort | Brian P Dolan |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Acceleration radiation—or Unruh radiation—the thermal radiation observed by an ever accelerating observer or detector, although having similarities to Hawking radiation, so far has proved extremely challenging to observe experimentally. One recent suggestion is that, in the presence of a mirror, constant acceleration of an atom in its ground state can excite the atom while at the same time cause it to emit a photon in an Unruh-type process. In this work we show that merely by shaking the atom, in simple harmonic motion for example, can have the same effect. We calculate the transition rate for this in first order perturbation theory and consider harmonic motion of the atom in the presence of a stationary mirror, or within a cavity or just in empty vacuum. For the latter we propose a circuit-QED potential implementation that yields transition rates of ∼10 ^−4 Hz, which may be detectable experimentally. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T16:30:08Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-0eaac54ad1414a869fb9e0650faa3665 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1367-2630 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T16:30:08Z |
| publishDate | 2020-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | New Journal of Physics |
| spelling | doaj.art-0eaac54ad1414a869fb9e0650faa36652023-08-08T15:30:34ZengIOP PublishingNew Journal of Physics1367-26302020-01-0122303302610.1088/1367-2630/ab7bd5Shaking photons from the vacuum: acceleration radiation from vibrating atomsBrian P Dolan0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0138-5662Aonghus Hunter-McCabe1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7265-1900Jason Twamley2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8930-6131Department of Theoretical Physics, Maynooth University , Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland; School of Theoretical Physics, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies , 10 Burlington Rd., Dublin, IrelandDepartment of Theoretical Physics, Maynooth University , Maynooth, Co. Kildare, IrelandCentre for Engineered Quantum Systems, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Macquarie University , Sydney, New South Wales 2109, AustraliaAcceleration radiation—or Unruh radiation—the thermal radiation observed by an ever accelerating observer or detector, although having similarities to Hawking radiation, so far has proved extremely challenging to observe experimentally. One recent suggestion is that, in the presence of a mirror, constant acceleration of an atom in its ground state can excite the atom while at the same time cause it to emit a photon in an Unruh-type process. In this work we show that merely by shaking the atom, in simple harmonic motion for example, can have the same effect. We calculate the transition rate for this in first order perturbation theory and consider harmonic motion of the atom in the presence of a stationary mirror, or within a cavity or just in empty vacuum. For the latter we propose a circuit-QED potential implementation that yields transition rates of ∼10 ^−4 Hz, which may be detectable experimentally.https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/ab7bd5acceleration radiationunruh radiationcircuit QED |
| spellingShingle | Brian P Dolan Aonghus Hunter-McCabe Jason Twamley Shaking photons from the vacuum: acceleration radiation from vibrating atoms New Journal of Physics acceleration radiation unruh radiation circuit QED |
| title | Shaking photons from the vacuum: acceleration radiation from vibrating atoms |
| title_full | Shaking photons from the vacuum: acceleration radiation from vibrating atoms |
| title_fullStr | Shaking photons from the vacuum: acceleration radiation from vibrating atoms |
| title_full_unstemmed | Shaking photons from the vacuum: acceleration radiation from vibrating atoms |
| title_short | Shaking photons from the vacuum: acceleration radiation from vibrating atoms |
| title_sort | shaking photons from the vacuum acceleration radiation from vibrating atoms |
| topic | acceleration radiation unruh radiation circuit QED |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/ab7bd5 |
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