We prove that the Heisenberg-Euler-Schwinger mechanism –pair creation in a constant electric field– and its radiative corrections imply the Unruh effect, i.e. the thermalisation of accelerated systems at temperature a/2π where a is the acceleration. More precisely, the properties of the amplitudes for pair creation under crossing symmetry and CPT are sufficient to deduce the Unruh effect. Furth...

An extended monopole detector at constant acceleration coupled to a massless scalar field is allowed to evolve quantum mechanically. It is found that while in the classical, followed by the point particle, limit the usual result (Unruh effect) is recovered, in the point particle (before the classical) limit the detector decouples from the scalar field and therefore the effect disappears. List o...

It has been 30 years since the discovery of the Unruh effect. It has played a crucial role in our understanding that the particle content of a field theory is observer dependent. This effect is important in its own right and as a way to understand the phenomenon of particle emission from black holes and cosmological horizons. The Unruh effect is reviewed here with particular emphasis on its app...

The Hawking effect and the Unruh effect are two of the most important predictions in the theoretical physics of the last quarter of the 20th century. In parallel to the theoretical investigations there is great interest in the possibility of revealing effects of this type in some sort of experiments. I present a general discussion of the proposals to measure the Hawking and Unruh effects and/or...