Modified dispersion relations and the response of the rotating Unruh-DeWitt detector

Abstract

We study the response of a rotating monopole detector that is coupled to a massless scalar field which is described by a non-linear dispersion relation in flat spacetime. Since it does not seem to be possible to evaluate the response of the rotating detector analytically, we resort to numerical computations. Interestingly, unlike the case of the uniformly accelerated detector that has been considered recently, we find that defining the transition probability rate of the rotating detector poses no difficulties. Further, we show that the response of the rotating detector can be computed {\it exactly}\vee (albeit, numerically) even when it is coupled to a field that is governed by a non-linear dispersion relation. We also discuss the response of the rotating detector in the presence of a cylindrical boundary on which the scalar field is constrained to vanish. While super-luminal dispersion relations hardly affect the standard results, we find that sub-luminal dispersion relations can lead to relatively large modifications.