Detecting modified Vacuum Fluctuations using geometric phase acquired by an accelerated atom*

Quantum field fluctuations can get modified due to the observer’s motion or a change in the boundary conditions on the field. Such modifications of quantum field fluctuations may result in effects like the Unruh effect and the Hawking Radiation. Experimental verification of these predictions requires extreme acceleration (or gravity). Here, we study the modified vacuum fluctuations perceived by an accelerated atom inside an electromagnetic cavity. The boundary effects due to the cavity walls can be separated from the inertial contribution and the non-inertial contribution arising from the atomic acceleration.

Further, the cavity allows the separation of the non-inertial and the inertial contributions. The accumulative nature of the geometric phase may facilitate the experimental observation of the resulting, otherwise extremely weak, non-inertial contribution to the modified field correlations. We, therefore, analyze the possibility of the experimental observation of the modified vacuum fluctuations using the geometric phase acquired by the accelerated atom.