Unruh-like effects: effective temperatures along stationary worldlines

Area of Science:

• Theoretical Physics
• Quantum Field Theory
• Spacetime Geometry

Background:

• The Unruh effect predicts a thermal bath for uniformly accelerated observers.
• Understanding thermal properties of different accelerated worldlines is crucial for quantum field theory in curved spacetime.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate detailed balance temperatures along various stationary, uniformly accelerated worldlines in Minkowski spacetime.
• To compare these temperatures with the Unruh temperature and analyze their dependence on spacetime geometry and detector properties.

Main Methods:

• Utilized an Unruh-DeWitt detector interacting with a massless Klein-Gordon field in a vacuum state.
• Analyzed temperatures along linear, cusped, circular, catenary, and helix worldlines.
• Employed numerical investigations and analytical evaluations of asymptotic limits.

Main Results:

• Temperatures depend on curvature (κ), torsion (b), and hypertorsion (ν).
• For non-linear worldlines, temperatures depend on detector transition frequency (ω).
• Temperatures dip below the Unruh temperature at low frequencies and exceed it at high frequencies.

Conclusions:

• The study provides a comprehensive analysis of thermal properties for diverse accelerated observers.
• Results highlight deviations from the standard Unruh temperature, offering new avenues for experimental verification.
• This research contributes to understanding quantum effects in non-inertial frames.