Physicists Embark on a Hunt for a Long-Sought Quantum Glow

According to a prediction known as the Unruh effect, Millenium Falcon pilots would more likely see a warm glow as they jump to hyperspace. Credit: Christine Daniloff, MIT

A new approach could make it possible detect the elusive Unruh effect in hours, rather than billions of years.

For “Star Wars” fans, the streaking stars seen from the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon as it jumps to hyperspace is a canonical image. But what would a pilot actually see if she could accelerate in an instant through the vacuum of space? She would most certainly see a warm glow, according to a prediction known as the Unruh effect.

Since the 1970s when it was first proposed, the Unruh effect has eluded detection, owing to the fact that the probability of seeing the effect is infinitesimally small, requiring either incredible accelerations or vast periods of observation time. However, researchers at

“Now at least we know there is a chance in our lifetimes where we might actually see this effect,” says study co-author Vivishek Sudhir, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, who is designing an experiment to catch the effect based on the group’s theory. “It’s a hard experiment, and there’s no guarantee that we’d be able to do it, but this idea is our nearest hope.”

The study’s co-authors also include…

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