Particle detectors in curved spacetime quantum field theory

Abstract

Unruh-DeWitt particle detector models are studied in a variety of time-dependent and time-independent settings. We work within the framework of first-order perturbation theory and couple the detector to a massless scalar field. The necessity of switching on (off) the detector smoothly is emphasised throughout, and the transition rate is found by taking the sharp-switching limit of the regulator-free and finite response function. The detector is analysed on a variety of spacetimes: $d$-dimensional Minkowski, the Ba\~nados-Teitelboim-Zanelli (BTZ) black hole, the two-dimensional Minkowski half-plane, two-dimensional Minkowski with a receding mirror, and the two- and four-dimensional Schwarzschild black holes. In $d$-dimensional Minkowski spacetime, the transition rate is found to be finite up to dimension five. In dimension six, the transition rate diverges unless the detector is on a trajectory of constant proper acceleration, and the implications of this divergence to the global embedding spacetime (GEMS) methods are studied. In three-dimensional curved spacetime, the transition rate for the scalar field in an arbitrary Hadamard state is found to be finite and regulator-free. Then on the Ba\~nados-Teitelboim-Zanelli (BTZ) black hole spacetime, we analyse the detector coupled to the field in the Hartle-Hawking vacua, under both transparent and reflective boundary conditions at infinity. Results are presented for the co-rotating detector, which responds thermally, and for the radially-infalling detector. In four-dimensional Schwarzschild spacetime, we proceed numerically, and the Hartle-Hawking, Boulware and Unruh vacua rates are compared. Results are presented for the case of the static detectors, which respond thermally, and also for the case of co-rotating detectors.