Directional dependence of the Unruh effect for spatially extended detectors

Abstract

We analyse the response of a spatially extended direction-dependent local quantum system, a detector, moving on the Rindler trajectory of uniform linear acceleration in Minkowski spacetime, and coupled linearly to a quantum scalar field. We consider two spatial profiles: (i) a profile defined in the Fermi-Walker frame of an arbitrarily-accelerating trajectory, generalising the isotropic Lorentz-function profile introduced by Schlicht to include directional dependence; and (ii) a profile defined only for a Rindler trajectory, utilising the associated frame, and confined to a Rindler wedge, but again allowing arbitrary directional dependence. For (i), we find that the transition rate on a Rindler trajectory is non-thermal, and dependent on the direction, but thermality is restored in the low and high frequency regimes, with a direction-dependent temperature, and also in the regime of high acceleration compared with the detector's inverse size. For (ii), the transition rate is isotropic, and thermal in the usual Unruh temperature. We attribute the non-thermality and anisotropy found in (i) to the leaking of the Lorentz-function profile past the Rindler horizon.