Probing non-equilibrium steady states of the Klein-Gordon field with Unruh-DeWitt detectors

Abstract: We calculate the transition rate of an Unruh-DeWitt detector coupled to a non-equilibrium steady state (NESS) of a free massless scalar field on four-dimensional Minkowski spacetime. The NESS arises from bringing two semi-infinite heat baths into thermal contact along a hypersurface. The detector couples linearly to the field by a monopole interaction, and it moves inertially along the axis of the NESS heat flow. We contrast the resulting transition rates with the case of a detector that is coupled to an inertial thermal equilibrium state. The results illustrate that the monopole does not properly couple to the heat flow, resulting in the detector to merely register kinematical effects. Hence dynamical features of the NESS are hidden from this detector model.