https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-024-12849-9
Regular Article - Experimental Physics
Measuring Unruh radiation from accelerated electrons
1
Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Parks Road, OX1 3PU, Oxford, UK
2
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Rd, 94720, Berkeley, CA, USA
3
STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, OX11 OQX, Didcot, Oxon, UK
4
Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde SUPA, G4 0NG, Glasgow, UK
5
Department of Physics, University of Aberdeen, AB24 3UE, Aberdeen, UK
a
gianluca.gregori@physics.ox.ac.uk
Received:
13
March
2024
Accepted:
23
April
2024
Published online:
8
May
2024
Detecting thermal Unruh radiation from accelerated electrons has presented a formidable challenge due not only to technical difficulties but also for lack of conceptual clarity about what is actually seen by a laboratory observer. We give a summary of the current interpretations along with a simpler heuristic description that draws on the analogy between the Unruh effect and radiation from a two-level atomic system. We propose an experiment to test whether there is emission of thermal photons from an accelerated electron.
© The Author(s) 2024
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