Abstract
The Unruh effect predicts a thermal response for an accelerated detector moving through the vacuum. Here we propose an interferometric scheme to observe an analogue of the circular Unruh effect using a localized laser coupled to a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). Quantum fluctuations in the condensate are governed by an effective relativistic field theory, and as demonstrated, the coupled laser field acts as an effective Unruh-DeWitt detector thereof. The effective speed of light is lowered by 12 orders of magnitude to the sound velocity in the BEC. For detectors traveling close to the sound speed, observation of the Unruh effect in the analogue system becomes experimentally feasible.
- Received 24 July 2020
- Accepted 7 October 2020
- Corrected 21 December 2020
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.213603
© 2020 American Physical Society
Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)
Corrections
21 December 2020
Correction: A discrepancy in the sixth author’s name has been rectified.