Quantum detection of conicity

Abstract

We investigate the sensitivity of an Unruh–DeWitt detector to the global features of a deficit angle that are otherwise classically inaccessible. Specifically, we consider a detector placed inside an infinite thin hollow cylinder whose spacetime is everywhere flat but outside of which the spacetime has a deficit angle and study its response to a scalar field to which it couples. We find that the response of the detector is sensitive to the deficit angle, despite the fact that it does not interact with the cylinder.