Signatures of the Unruh Effect from Electrons Accelerated by Ultrastrong Laser Fields

Abstract

We calculate the radiation resulting from the Unruh effect for strongly accelerated electrons and show that the photons are created in pairs whose polarizations are perfectly correlated. Apart from the photon statistics, this quantum radiation can further be discriminated from the classical (Larmor) radiation via the different spectral and angular distributions. The signatures of the Unruh effect become significant if the external electromagnetic field accelerating the electrons is not too far below the Schwinger limit and might be observable with future facilities. Finally, the corrections due to the birefringent nature of the QED vacuum at such ultrahigh fields are discussed.