Fluctuations of the Unruh Temperature

Abstract

Using the influence functional formalism, the problem of an accelerating detector in the presence of a scalar field in its ground state is considered in Minkowski space. As is known since the work of Unruh, to a quantum mechanical detector following a definite, classical acceleration, the field appears to be thermally excited. We relax the requirement of perfect classicality for the trajectory and substitute it with one of {\it derived} classicality through the criteria of decoherence. The ensuing fluctuations in temperature are then related with the time and the amplitude of excitation in the detector's internal degree of freedom.