Does an accelerated mirror suffer hindrance from vacuum?

Abstract

We study the accelerated motion of mirrors and the photonic Unruh effect. The solutions of Maxwell's equations with appropriate boundary conditions in Rindler coordinates are found. The canonical quantization of the field is carried out properly. Important consequences arise from the presence of mirrors or polarizers. It is shown that a single reflective surface produces frequency quantization due to Dirichlet conditions applied to the $-1/(\alpha x)^2$ anomalous potential for non-inertial observers. The number of photons per accelerated mode is estimated via Hankel functions.