2000/12/22 by B. L. Hu, Hu, B. L., Alpan Raval +1
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Quantum Physics (quant-ph) #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.quant-ph/0012134
Invited talk given by BLH at Capri Workshop on Quantum Aspects of Beam Physics, Oct. 2000. 10 pages, no figures
arxiv created 2000/12/22 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
The thermal radiance felt by a uniformly accelerated detector/oscillator/atom--the Unruh effect-- is often mistaken to be some emitted radiation detectable by an observer/probe/sensor. Here we show by an explicit calculation of the energy momentum tensor of a quantum scalar field that, at least in 1+1 dimension, while a polarization cloud is found to exist around the particle trajectory, there is no emitted radiation from a uniformly accelerated oscillator in equilibrium conditions. Under nonequilibrium conditions which can prevail for non-uniformly accelerated trajectories or before the atom or oscillator reaches equilibrium, there is conceivably radiation emitted, but that is not what Unruh effect entails.