General Relativistic Quantum Optics: Finite-size particle detector models in curved spacetimes

Understand

We propose a fully covariant model for smeared particle detectors in quantum field theory in curved spacetimes.

• We show how effects related to accelerated motion of the detector and the curvature of spacetime influence the way different observers assign an interaction Hamiltonian between the detector and the field.
• The fully covariant formulation explicitly leaves the physical predictions of the theory invariant under general coordinate transformations, hence providing a description of particle detector models (e.g., Unruh-DeWitt detectors, models for the light-matter interaction, etc) that is suitable for arbitrary trajectories in general spacetime backgrounds.