Continuous intracavity monitoring of the dynamical Casimir effect

Abstract

Dynamical Casimir effect (DCE) is the name assigned to the process of generating quanta from vacuum due to an accelerated motion of macroscopic neutral bodies (mirrors) or time-modulation of cavity material properties, as well as the simulation of such processes. Here I review the theoretical results on the detection of DCE using intracavity quantum detectors, such as multi-level atoms, atomic networks and harmonic oscillators. I also stress the mathematical equivalence of this problem to the physics of optical parametric oscillators interacting with atoms or quantum wells, studied in Quantum Nonlinear Optics.