Sonoluminescence: Bogolubov Coefficients for the QED Vacuum of a Time-Dependent Dielectric Bubble

Matt Visser; S. Liberati; F. Belgiorno; D. W. Sciama

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.83.678

Sonoluminescence: Bogolubov Coefficients for the QED Vacuum of a Time-Dependent Dielectric Bubble

Matt Visser, S. Liberati, F. Belgiorno, and D. W. Sciama

Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 678 – Published 26 July 1999

Abstract

We extend Schwinger's ideas regarding sonoluminescence by explicitly calculating the Bogolubov coefficients relating the QED vacuum states associated with changes in a dielectric bubble. Sudden (nonadiabatic) changes in the refractive index lead to an efficient production of real photons with a broadband spectrum, and a high-frequency cutoff that arises from the asymptotic behavior of the dielectric constant.

Received 8 May 1998

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.83.678

Authors & Affiliations

Matt Visser^1,*, S. Liberati^2,†, F. Belgiorno^3,‡, and D. W. Sciama^2,4,5,§

¹Physics Department, Washington University, Saint Louis, Missouri 63130-4899
²International School for Advanced Studies, Via Beirut 2-4, 34014 Trieste, Italy
³Universitá degli Studi di Milano, Dipartimento di Fisica, Via Celoria 16, 20133 Milano, Italy
⁴International Center for Theoretical Physics, Strada Costiera 11, 34014 Trieste, Italy
⁵Physics Department, Oxford University, Oxford, England

^*Email address: visser@kiwi.wustl.edu
^†Email address: liberati@sissa.it
^‡Email address: belgiorno@mi.infn.it
^§Email address: sciama@sissa.it