Particle detectors in curved spacetime quantum field theory

Understand

Unruh-DeWitt particle detector models are studied in a variety of time-dependent and time-independent settings.

• We work within the framework of first-order perturbation theory and couple the detector to a massless scalar field.
• The necessity of switching on (off) the detector smoothly is emphasised throughout, and the transition rate is found by taking the sharp-switching limit of the regulator-free and finite response function.
• The detector is analysed on a variety of spacetimes: $d$-dimensional Minkowski, the Ba\~nados-Teitelboim-Zanelli (BTZ) black hole, the two-dimensional Minkowski half-plane, two-dimensional Minkowski with a receding mirror, and the two- and four-dimensional Schwarzschild black holes.