Sun, 27 Jul 2008 07:56:42 BST CiteULike: dhbradshaw's library [138 articles] http://www.citeulike.org/user/dhbradshaw/article/2582938 CiteULike.org en-gb Copyright © 2004-2008 citeulike.org http://www.citeulike.org/user/dhbradshaw/article/2582938 <i>Physical Review Letters, Vol. 62, No. 15. (10 April 1989), 1742.</i><br /><br />Shortly after Hawking’s prediction of thermal radiation from black holes; it became apparent that observers in accelerating frames should see a Planck distribution of electromagnetic radiation (Unruh radiation). Since an acceleration g =980 cm/sec 2 produces a radiation temperature of only ∼4×10 -20 K; the detection of such thermal radiation is a major challenge. A nonlinear optical medium whose index of refraction is changing rapidly with time accelerates zero-point quantum fluctuations. The sudden ionization of a gas or a semiconductor crystal to generate a plasma on a subpicosecond time scale can produce a reference frame accelerating at ∼10 20 g relative to an inertial frame. Accelerating reference frame for electromagnetic waves in a rapidly growing plasma: Unruh-Davies-Fulling-DeWitt radiation and the nonadiabatic Casimir effect E Yablonovitch doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.62.1742 Physical Review Letters, Vol. 62, No. 15. (10 April 1989), 1742. 2008-03-24T22:41:57-00:00 1989 Physical Review Letters 62 15 1742 American Physical Society adiabatic