Abstract
We investigate the weak decay of uniformly accelerated protons in the context of standard quantum field theory. Because the mean proper lifetime of a particle is a scalar, the same value for this observable must be obtained in the inertial and coaccelerated frames. We are only able to achieve this equality by considering the Fulling-Davies-Unruh effect. This reflects the fact that the Fulling-Davies-Unruh effect is mandatory for the consistency of quantum field theory.
- Received 5 April 2001
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.87.151301
©2001 American Physical Society