Unruh effect

Unruh effect - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Unruh effect, which Unruh discovered in 1976, is the prediction that an accelerating observer will observe black-body radiation where an inertial observer would observe none. In other words, the accelerating observer will find herself in a warm background. The quantum state which is seen as ground state for observers in inertial systems is seen as a thermodynamic equilibrium for the uniformly accelerated observer. The Unruh effect therefore means that the very notion of vacuum depends on the path of the observer through spacetime.

I don't know that I'm related to Bill Unruh... or Doktor Kurt Unruh von Steinplatz for that matter.