Radiation from a uniformly accelerating harmonic oscillator

Abstract

We consider a radiation from a uniformly accelerating harmonic oscillator whose minimal coupling to the scalar field changes suddenly. The exact time evolutions of the quantum operators are given in terms of a classical solution of a forced harmonic oscillator. After the jumping of the coupling constant there occurs a fast absorption of energy into the oscillator, and then a slow emission follows. Here the absorbed energy is independent of the acceleration and proportional to the log of a high momentum cutoff of the field. The emitted energy depends on the acceleration and also proportional to the log of the cutoff. Especially, if the coupling is comparable to the natural frequency of the detector ($e^2/(4m) \sim ω_0$) enormous energies are radiated away from the oscillator.