Emergence of Unruh prethermalization for uniformly accelerating many-atom system

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Saha, Saptarshi, Singha, Chiranjeeb, Das, Pragna, Chatterjee, Arpan
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Saha, Saptarshi
Singha, Chiranjeeb
Das, Pragna
Chatterjee, Arpan
author_facet Saha, Saptarshi
Singha, Chiranjeeb
Das, Pragna
Chatterjee, Arpan
contents A uniformly accelerated atom in an inertial vacuum generally thermalizes and reaches a Gibbs state. This phenomenon is commonly known as the Unruh effect. Here, we show that the situation is entirely different for the many-atoms problem. In the case of non-interacting accelerating atoms, we show that a regime exists where the entire system reaches a prethermal generalized Gibbs state before it thermalizes. The prethermal state is protected by emergent conserved quantities; hence, the system behaves like a nearly-integrable one, which shows a sharp distinction from the Unruh effect. We coin the term ``Unruh prethermalization" to characterize this phenomenon. The measure of entanglement is a good estimation of the lifetime of the prethermal state and is consistent with previous studies. Finally, we show that in such a regime, the dynamics show a Dicke superradiance-type radiation burst before reaching the prethermal state. In contrast, only a mono-exponential decay is observed for Unruh thermalization. In addition, to highlight the significance of our results, we compare them with existing experimental observations.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_05816
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Emergence of Unruh prethermalization for uniformly accelerating many-atom system
Saha, Saptarshi
Singha, Chiranjeeb
Das, Pragna
Chatterjee, Arpan
Quantum Physics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
A uniformly accelerated atom in an inertial vacuum generally thermalizes and reaches a Gibbs state. This phenomenon is commonly known as the Unruh effect. Here, we show that the situation is entirely different for the many-atoms problem. In the case of non-interacting accelerating atoms, we show that a regime exists where the entire system reaches a prethermal generalized Gibbs state before it thermalizes. The prethermal state is protected by emergent conserved quantities; hence, the system behaves like a nearly-integrable one, which shows a sharp distinction from the Unruh effect. We coin the term ``Unruh prethermalization" to characterize this phenomenon. The measure of entanglement is a good estimation of the lifetime of the prethermal state and is consistent with previous studies. Finally, we show that in such a regime, the dynamics show a Dicke superradiance-type radiation burst before reaching the prethermal state. In contrast, only a mono-exponential decay is observed for Unruh thermalization. In addition, to highlight the significance of our results, we compare them with existing experimental observations.
title Emergence of Unruh prethermalization for uniformly accelerating many-atom system
topic Quantum Physics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.05816