TY - JOUR
T1 - Unruh-DeWitt detectors as mirrors
T2 - Dynamical reflectivity and Casimir effect
AU - Lin, Shih Yuin
N1 - Funding Information:
I thank Bei-Lok Hu, Larry Ford, and Jen-Tsung Hsiang for illuminating discussions. This work is supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan under Grant No. MOST 106-2112-M-018-002-MY3 and in part by the National Center for Theoretical Sciences, Taiwan.
PY - 2018
Y1 - 2018
N2 - We demonstrate that the Unruh-DeWitt harmonic-oscillator detectors in (1+1) dimensions derivative-coupled with a massless scalar field can mimic the atom mirrors in free space. Without introducing the Dirichlet boundary condition to the field, the reflectivity of our detector or atom mirror is dynamically determined by the interaction of the detector's internal oscillator and the field. When the oscillator-field coupling is strong, a broad frequency range of the quantum field can be mostly reflected by the detector mirror at late times. Constructing a cavity model with two such detector mirrors, we can see how the quantum field inside the cavity evolves from a continuous to a quasidiscrete spectrum which gives a negative Casimir energy density at late times. In our numerical calculations, the Casimir energy density in the cavity does not converge until the UV cutoff is sufficiently large, with which the two internal oscillators are always separable.
AB - We demonstrate that the Unruh-DeWitt harmonic-oscillator detectors in (1+1) dimensions derivative-coupled with a massless scalar field can mimic the atom mirrors in free space. Without introducing the Dirichlet boundary condition to the field, the reflectivity of our detector or atom mirror is dynamically determined by the interaction of the detector's internal oscillator and the field. When the oscillator-field coupling is strong, a broad frequency range of the quantum field can be mostly reflected by the detector mirror at late times. Constructing a cavity model with two such detector mirrors, we can see how the quantum field inside the cavity evolves from a continuous to a quasidiscrete spectrum which gives a negative Casimir energy density at late times. In our numerical calculations, the Casimir energy density in the cavity does not converge until the UV cutoff is sufficiently large, with which the two internal oscillators are always separable.
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U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevD.98.105010
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevD.98.105010
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85057810638
VL - 98
JO - Physical Review D
JF - Physical Review D
SN - 2470-0010
IS - 10
M1 - 105010
ER -