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Energy Density in Expanding Universes as Seen by Unruh's Detector

Bjorn Garbrecht·Tomislav Prokopec
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Abstract

We consider the response of an Unruh detector to scalar fields in an expanding space-time. When combining transition elements of the scalar field Hamiltonian with the interaction operator of detector and field, one finds at second order in time-dependent perturbation theory a transition amplitude, which actually dominates in the ultraviolet over the first order contribution. In particular, the detector response faithfully reproduces the particle number implied by the stress-energy of a minimally coupled scalar field, which is inversely proportional to the energy of a scalar mode. This finding disagrees with the contention that in de Sitter space, the response of the detector drops exponentially with particle energy and therefore indicates a thermal spectrum.

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Bjorn Garbrecht, Tomislav Prokopec. 2004-06-28. Energy Density in Expanding Universes as Seen by Unruh's Detector. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.70.083529

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