Accelerated electron thermometer: Observation of 1D Planck radiation

Abstract

We report on the observation of thermal photons from an accelerated electron via examination of radiative beta decay of free neutrons measured by the RDK II collaboration. The emitted photon spectrum is shown to corroborate a thermal distribution consistent with the dynamical Casimir effect. Supported by a robust chi-squared statistic, we find the photons reside in a 1D Planck spectrum with a temperature predicted by the moving mirror model. Subject Indices: B50 (Electromagnetic processes and properties), D29 (Nuclear decays and radioactivities (including fission)), and E76 (Quantum field theory on curved space)