Dynamical Casimir effect in curved spacetime

Abstract

A boundary undergoing relativistic motion can create particles from quantum vacuum fluctuations in a phenomenon known as the dynamical Casimir effect (DCE). We examine the creation of particles, and more generally the transformation of quantum field states, due to boundary motion in curved spacetime. We provide a novel method enabling the calculation of the effect for a wide range of trajectories and spacetimes. We apply this to the experimental scenario used to detect the DCE, now adopting the Schwarzschild metric, and find novel resonances in particle creation as a result of the spacetime curvature. Finally, we discuss a potential enhancement of the effect for the phonon field of a Bose-Einstein condensate.