Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2017) 132: 523
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2017-11782-3

Regular Article

Unruh effect detection through chirality in curved graphene

¹ Unidad Académica de Física, Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas, Calzada Solidaridad esq. Paseo La Bufa S/N, 98060, Zacatecas, Mexico
² Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, Av. Salvador Nava S/N Zona Universitaria, 78290, Potosí, Mexico
³ Dual CP Institute of High Energy Physics, Colima, Mexico

^* e-mail: alberto.molgado@uaslp.mx

Received: 12 May 2017
Accepted: 5 November 2017
Published online: 14 December 2017

Abstract

We analyze a generalization of the analogue Unruh effect based on curved graphene. To this end, we consider the fourth order in derivatives field theoretic version of the Pais-Uhlenbeck oscillator, for which the Unruh effect may be interpreted as the creation of two different particles with different masses, corresponding to two Klein-Gordon subsystems. For our model, unlike the standard case, electron chirality on the graphene sheet plays a main role, as chirality is essential to distinguish the couple of particles predicted by the Unruh effect associated to the Pais-Uhlenbeck field model.