Accelerating decay with acceleration

Abstract

We investigate accelerated Unruh-deWitt detectors as a model for particle decay. We find non-trivial decay rates, including a pattern of peaks in decay rate that extends to lower accelerations. Applying our model to the alpha decay of $\mathrm{^{210}Po}$, we find that effects could be observed with an acceleration of $a\approx 10^{26} \frac{\mathrm{m}}{\mathrm{s}^2}$ as long as that acceleration is controlled to within 1 percent. Although still out of reach of current experimental setups, other decay processes at lower energy, such as beta decay, could result in the peaks we find being within range of future experiments.