Classical Larmor formula through the Unruh effect for uniformly accelerated electrons

Journal article

We investigate the connection between the classical Larmor formula and the quantum Unruh effect by computing the emitted power by a uniformly accelerated charged particle and its angular distribution in the co-accelerated frame. We consider a classical particle accelerated with non-zero charge only for a finite period and then take the infinite-time limit after removing the effects due to the initial charging and final discharging processes. We show that the result found for the interaction rates agrees with previous studies in which the period of acceleration with non-zero charge was taken to be infinite from the beginning. We also show that the power and angular distribution of emission, which is attributed either to the emission or absorption of a Rindler photon in the co-accelerated frame, is given by the Larmor formula, confirming that, at tree level, it is necessary to take into account the Unruh effect in order to reproduce the classical Larmor radiation formula in the coaccelerated frame.

Authors: Gregori, G

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Journal: Physical Review D: Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology
• Volume: 109
• Article number: 024044
• Publication date: 2024-01-25
• Acceptance date: 2023-12-26
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.109.024044
• EISSN: 2470-0029
• ISSN: 2470-0010
• Language: English
• Keywords: FFR