Decay of Accelerated Protons and the Existence of the Fulling-Davies-Unruh Effect

Abstract

We investigate the weak decay of uniformly accelerated protons in the context of standard quantum field theory. Because the mean proper lifetime of a particle is a scalar, the same value for this observable must be obtained in the inertial and coaccelerated frames. We are only able to achieve this equality by considering the Fulling-Davies-Unruh effect. This reflects the fact that the Fulling-Davies-Unruh effect is mandatory for the consistency of quantum field theory.

Analytic evaluation of the decay rate for an accelerated proton

“…[10,11], we can easily prove that the decay rates is independent of the frame. The last form is the definition of modified Bessel function K µ (z) for non-integer µ.…”

“…It was G. E. A Matsas and D. A. T. Vanzella [10,11] who realized that the decay rate can be used as a "theoretical check" of Unruh effect. The most interesting decay is in the case where we can deal with a particle which doesn't decay in inertial frame but can in accelerated frame.…”

Role of neutrino mixing in accelerated proton decay

“…For technical reasons, the analysis of Refs. [2,4] was performed in two dimensions and taking the neutrino to be massless. Subsequently, Suzuki and Yamada [11] confirmed these results by extending the discussion to the four-dimensional case with a massive neutrino.…”

Resonance interaction energy between two accelerated identical atoms in a coaccelerated frame and the Unruh effect

“…On the other hand, it has been recently argued that the existence of the Unruh effect is mandatory for the consistency of quantum field theory [23]. It is therefore relevant to investigate theoretically all physical manifestations of the Unruh effect in different physical systems, as well as possible experimental setups to detect this elusive phenomenon at the boundary between quantum mechanics and general relativity.…”

“…In this context, many investigations in the literature have been concerned with the question of the equivalence between the locally inertialand coaccelerated-frame points of view. In particular, it has been shown in different specific cases that a complete agreement between the physical results obtained in the comoving (locally inertial) and coaccelerated frame can be restored, providing to assume an Unruh temperature proportional to the acceleration of the system, for the quantum fields in the Rindler frame; examples are the excitation rate of a uniformly accelerated atom [35,41], the rate of photon emission with a given transverse momentum [42,43] and the decay of accelerated protons [23]. From the previous considerations, it seems that the existence of the Unruh effect is a requirement for the compatibility of physical results in different (locally inertial and coaccelerated) frames.…”