Quantum gravity corrections to the spontaneous excitation of an accelerated atom interacting with a quantum scalar field

Abstract: The Generalized Uncertainty Principle (GUP) extends the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle (HUP) by suggesting a minimum observable scale that includes the effects of quantum gravity, which is supposed to potentially result in observable effects far below the Planck energy scale, providing us the opportunity to explore the theory of quantum gravity through physical processes at low energy scale. In present work, we study the corrections induced by the GUP to the spontaneous radiation properties of a two-level atom interacting with a real massless scalar quantum field based on the DDC formalism. The GUP alters the correlation function of the scalar field, consequently affecting the radiative properties of atoms. We compute the rate of change in the mean atomic energy for an atom undergoing inertial motion, uniform acceleration, and uniform circular motion. We show that the GUP can enhance the spontaneous emission rate of an excited state atom in inertial motion; however, it does not alter the stability of the ground-state atom in vacuum. For an atom in uniformly accelerated and uniformly circular motion, the GUP can change both its spontaneous emission and spontaneous excitation rates, and the proper acceleration $a$ can significantly amplify the effect of the GUP on the spontaneous transition rates of the atom.