2007/06/30 by Hongwei Yu, Wenting Zhou · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #gr-qc #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.76.027503
published as Phys.Rev.D76:027503,2007 · 9 pages, no figures, typos corrected in the references, published version
openalex publication_date 2007/07/17 · arxiv created 2007/07/18 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Using the formalism that separates the contributions of vacuum fluctuations and radiation reaction to the rate of change of the mean atomic energy, we show that a two-level atom in interaction with a quantum massless scalar field both in the Hartle-Hawking and Unruh vacuum in a 1+1 dimensional black hole background spontaneously excites as if there is thermal radiation at the Hawking temperature emanating from the black hole. Our calculation, therefore, ties the existence of Hawking radiation to the spontaneous excitation of a two-level atom placed in vacuum in the exterior of a black hole and shows pleasing consistence of two different physical phenomena, the Hawking radiation and the spontaneous excitation of atoms, which are quite prominent in their own right.