2007/04/30 by Nicolas C. Menicucci, G. J. Milburn · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreva.76.052105
published as Phys. Rev. A 76, 052105 (2007) · 5 pages (two-column format), no figures, added introductory material, other minor content revisions
arxiv created 2007/07/27 · openalex publication_date 2007/11/14 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
We show how a single trapped ion may be used to test a variety of important physical models realized as time-dependent harmonic oscillators. The ion itself functions as its own motional detector through laser-induced electronic transitions. Alsing et al., [Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 220401 (2005)] proposed that an exponentially decaying trap frequency could be used to simulate (thermal) Gibbons-Hawking radiation in an expanding universe, but the Hamiltonian used was incorrect. We apply our general solution to this experimental proposal, correcting the result for a single ion and showing that while the actual spectrum is different from the Gibbons-Hawking case, it nevertheless shares an important experimental signature with this result.