Acceleration, Radiation and the Unruh Effect

• Grant number: 24/01141-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2024
• End date: November 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - Elementary Particle Physics and Fields
• Principal Investigator: Andre Gustavo Scagliusi Landulfo
• Grantee: Carlos Henrique Correr da Silva
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Naturais e Humanas (CCNH). Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC). Ministério da Educação (Brasil). Santo André , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The connection between acceleration and radiation and its relationship with the equivalence principle has intrigued the scientific community for decades. More recently, this question has been investigated from the perspective of quantum mechanics within the framework of quantum field theory in curved spacetimes and found what appears to be a striking connection between the bremsstrahlung (a classical effect) and the Unruh effect (a purely quantum effect). More than that, the so-called zero-energy Rindler photons play a surprising but crucial role in such a connection. In this scientific initiation project, we intend to study the classical and quantum aspects of the radiation emitted by an accelerated (scalar) charge and the exact role played by zero-energy Rindler photons (already in the classical context). Such analysis will serve as a "workhorse" to introduce the student to quantum field theory in curved space-time and its most diverse conceptual aspects.