Adiabatic particle production in a time-dependent accelerated frame
We study a massive scalar field in flat spacetime written in a time-dependent accelerated frame whose fixed-coordinate observers have maximal proper acceleration at $t=0$ and become asymptotically inertial without forming a horizon. The Klein-Gordon equation separates into a modified Mathieu equation in time and a confining Schrödinger problem in space with a discrete spectrum. We impose an adiabatic vacuum at the instant of maximal acceleration and compute the particle number in the inertial future. For the zeroth-order adiabatic state it falls as the inverse eighth power of the initial mode frequency, and raising the adiabatic order cancels successive terms of the endpoint expansion, in analogy with the switching transients of finite-time detectors. Analytic continuation of the spatial eigenfunctions gives the out modes in closed form and an exact expression for the particle number, which is entirely the mismatch at $t=0$ between the initial state and the out vacuum. The spectrum is algebraic rather than Planckian.