A quantum field theoretical detector model for probing the Unruh effect

Abstract: We consider a particle detector model on 1+1-dimensional Minkowski space-time that is accelerated by a constant external acceleration a. The detector is coupled to a massless scalar test field. Due to the Unruh effect, this detector becomes excited even in Minkowski vacuum with a probability proportional to a thermal Bose-Einstein distribution at temperature T=a/2pi in the detector's energy gap. This excitation is usually said to happen upon detection of a Rindler quantum, which is defined by having positive frequency with respect to the detector's proper time instead of inertial time. Using Unruh's fully relativistic detector model, we show that the process involved is in fact spontaneous excitation of the detector due to the interaction with the accelerating background field E=ma. We explicitly solve the Klein-Gordon equation in the presence of a constant background field E and use this result to calculate the transition probability for the detector to become excited on Minkowski vacuum. This transition probability agrees with the Unruh effect, but is obtained without reverting to the concept of Rindler quantization.