The Unruh Effect | Space Time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cj6oiFDEXc

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are you worried about black holes

consider this every time you accelerate

put your foot on the gas quick in your

step get out of your chair you generate

an event horizon behind you the more you

accelerate away from it the closer it

gets don't worry it can never catch up

to you but the Unruh radiation it

generates sure can - around the same time

that Stephen Hawking was demonstrating

the existence of the black hole

radiation that would bear his name three

other researchers Stephen Fulling, Paul

Davis and William Unruh were looking at

an effect that now seems eerily similar

they were independently studying how the

nature of quantum fields appears to

change depending on whether or not an

observer is accelerating they found that

the simple act of acceleration cuts off

your causal access to a region of the

universe it creates a type of event

horizon as we saw in our episode on

horizon radiation the presence of

horizons distorts the quantum vacuum in

a way that can create particles this is

the fooling Davis Unruh effect or

sometimes just the Unruh effect it tells

us that accelerating observers find

themselves in a warm bath of particles

to understand this we don't need general

relativity with its space-time curvature

and conflicts with quantum mechanics we

just need a little special relativity

and a spacetime diagram we've talked

about these before but here's a quick

rehash a spacetime diagram has two axes

time and well space with time on the

vertical axis we can show an object's

path through space and time using world

lines on the diagram for an object with

a constant velocity and inertial object

these world lines are just straight

lines and the slope gives their velocity

a particle not moving at all has a

vertical world line Einstein taught us

that an object without mass like a

photon can only travel at the speed of

light and no slower on the space-time

diagram this is a line with a 45 degree

angle from the

axis this angle isn't anything special

it's just determined by the units of

space and time that we choose objects

with mass can never reach the speed of

light so the world line of a massive

object which includes any observer has

to be less than 45 degrees from the

vertical extending light ray world lines

backwards from our observer defines what

we call the past light cone the region

of space-time that can have a causal

influence on the observer that's because

photons fired from anywhere in the past

light cone can reach our observer either

at the current point or at some point in

their past world line as our observer

moves forward in time as long as they

don't travel faster than light their

past light cone should eventually

contain the entire universe well that's

if you ignore the expansion of the

universe and this makes sense if you

wait long enough photons from anywhere

in the universe can catch up to you at

least you'd think so right but actually

there is a sub Lightspeed world line

that can outpace light or at least keep

ahead of it that's the world line of an

observer undergoing constant

acceleration acceleration means change

in speed so an accelerating world line

is curved the slope changes here's an

example imagine my friend is travelling

towards me initially at close to the

speed of light for some reason they

change their mind I've know they

suddenly remember there's something

better on they fire their rockets and

begin a constant acceleration in the

opposite direction to begin with that

just slows down their approach speed

just before they reach my space-time

location that constant acceleration

brings them to a halt and they start

moving back in the opposite direction

they then accelerate back up to close to

the speed of light and keep accelerating

okay whatever I didn't want to hang out

anyway that constant acceleration world

line traces out a hyperbola and it has a

very interesting property if I fire a

photon at the point of closest approach

say to send a message that photon can

never catch up to my friend as long as

they stay on that hyperbolic trajectory

the photon will always be inching closer

it'll become asymptotically close but it

will never

the take now this is only true as long

as they continue to accelerate away slow

down or stop and my message can catch up

in reality eternal constant acceleration

would take infinite energy so after

draining all of the energy in the

universe they try Li have to stop

accelerating and my message would

overtake them but until that happens

they stay just ahead of my Photon they

also stay ahead of any photon emitted

from this dating online or any point on

the other side of it this means that any

events happening to the left of that

diagonal line will never affect the

accelerating observer which sounds

pretty horizon like in fact the act of

acceleration does create a type of event

horizon called a Rindler horizon it's

named after the coordinate system we use

to describe a constantly accelerating

observer in special relativity Rindler

coordinates devised by Austrian

physicist Wolfgang Rindler who by the

way also invented the term event horizon

the Rindler horizon flows at a fixed

distance behind a constantly

accelerating observer let's call the

Rindler observers from now on the

distance of a Rindler horizon is

inversely proportional to acceleration

the larger the acceleration the closer

the horizon all parts of the universe

beyond that horizon are out of causal

connection with the Rindler observer as

long as they continue to accelerate but

here's the weird thing

even momentary acceleration generates a

Rindler horizon you don't need to pinky

swear that you'll keep accelerating it's

like the projected future acceleration

gives you a Rindler horizon in the

present and just as with Hawking

radiation that horizon cuts off your

access to cern fundamental frequency

modes of the quantum vacuum the

derivation requires a switch between

inertial or minkovski and Rindler space

via the beloved bug on you both

transformations which are also used in

the hawking derivation and here they

also lead to a mixing of positive and

negative frequency modes in the

accelerating frame of reference which

leads to the creation of particles in

that accelerating frame

those particles should have the same

type of spectrum as Hawking radiation a

thermal spectrum the vacuum should

appear warm with the temperature

proportional to the acceleration this is

the Unruh effect now there's a big

difference between the Unruh and hawking

effects in the case of Hawking radiation

an inertial observer far from the black

hole sees the radiation this is because

that distant point of space-time is

smoothly connected to the space-time

near the horizon and it's all one big

space-time the only observers who don't

see hawking radiation

though is plummeting in free fall

towards the event horizon but if an

accelerating Rindler observer is in the

same location as an inertial observer

the former will see that patch of space

filled with radiation but the latter

will see an empty vacuum in the same

patch at first glance this disagreement

seems like a huge conflict what if the

riddler observer accelerates fast enough

that they are burned to a crisp by Unruh

radiation does the inertial observer see

some sort of spontaneous combustion

where does that energy appear to come

from if not from particles a little less

gruesomely

imagine the Rindler observer has a

particle detector every time an

unreported hits the detector it would

click and the inertial observer would

agree that it clicked but they wouldn't

see the particle the trigger and this is

actually the case it's been worked out

with math and everything the proof uses

something called an unrooted to wit

detector this is a fancy name for a

particle in a box this particle is

coupled to the quantum field of interest

meaning it can exchange energy with that

field that means the particle can be

excited into a higher energy quantum

state when it encounters a particle

associated with that field so as the

detector accelerates Unruh particles

appear the detector particle gets

excited by an unreported call causing

the detector to click but what does this

look like for someone not accelerating

but in the same patch of space well they

also see the accelerating detector click

but they argue that it's for a very

different reason when they perform the

relativistic field theory calculation to

understand the coupling between the

detector particle

field they get that there's a sort of

drag or friction term between the sector

in the field that results from the

acceleration that causes energy to be

dumped into the detector particle the

source of that energy is the

acceleration itself the upshot is that

the very existence of particles is

observer dependence here's a specific

example a charged particle accelerating

in a magnetic field emits radiation

bremsstrahlung radiation an inertial

observer sees the charged particle

itself radiating its energy extracted

from the magnetic field but an observer

accelerating with that charged particle

sees it absorbing Unruh particles and

then spitting them out again the Rindler

and inertial observers disagree on the

source of the energy even if they agree

on the final result so how strong is

Unruh radiation

well don't worry too much you need to

accelerate at a rate of 10 to the power

of 20 meters per second squared to

increase the temperature by a single

degree Kelvin it's difficult to directly

observe Unruh particles although

analogies have been observed even in

classical systems like this really

course study with water waves one more

thing according to Einstein's

equivalence principle remaining

stationary in a gravitational field is

equivalent to acceleration in free space

that means you right now are bathed in a

very tiny amount of Unruh radiation but

there's one place in the universe where

the gravitational acceleration can get

that high that's right above the event

horizon of a black hole if you hover

close enough to that event horizon you

would actually be bathed in Unruh

radiation here we get to a really

interesting question what's the

relationship between the Unruh particle

seen by someone hovering at the event

horizon and the particles of Hawking

radiation seen by a distant observer

well it's a great question but it's one

we're gonna have to come back to right

now I have to jet but not too fast

lest I combust in a Fulling Davis Unruh

thermal bath as I accelerate to that

future point in space-time

you