Interferometric unruh detectors for bose-einstein condensates

C Gooding, S Biermann, S Erne, J Louko, WG Unruh… - Physical Review Letters, 2020 - APS
C Gooding, S Biermann, S Erne, J Louko, WG Unruh, J Schmiedmayer, S Weinfurtner
Physical Review Letters, 2020APS
The Unruh effect predicts a thermal response for an accelerated detector moving through the
vacuum. Here we propose an interferometric scheme to observe an analogue of the circular
Unruh effect using a localized laser coupled to a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). Quantum
fluctuations in the condensate are governed by an effective relativistic field theory, and as
demonstrated, the coupled laser field acts as an effective Unruh-DeWitt detector thereof. The
effective speed of light is lowered by 12 orders of magnitude to the sound velocity in the …
The Unruh effect predicts a thermal response for an accelerated detector moving through the vacuum. Here we propose an interferometric scheme to observe an analogue of the circular Unruh effect using a localized laser coupled to a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). Quantum fluctuations in the condensate are governed by an effective relativistic field theory, and as demonstrated, the coupled laser field acts as an effective Unruh-DeWitt detector thereof. The effective speed of light is lowered by 12 orders of magnitude to the sound velocity in the BEC. For detectors traveling close to the sound speed, observation of the Unruh effect in the analogue system becomes experimentally feasible.
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