Zero-point field in a circular-motion frame

Abstract

The energy spectrum of zero-point fields of a massless scalar field observed by a detector in circular motion is studied by analyzing the Wightman function. It is shown to be quite different from the Planck spectrum which would have been expected from the result of a uniformly accelerated detector. In a nonrelativistic limit zero-point fields with frequencies only up to the first harmonics of the circular-motion frequency contribute dominantly. In an extremely relativistic case the energy spectrum is dominated by a particular pole in the complex proper-time plane.