Bill Unruh

William G. Unruh (born August 28, 1945) is a Canadian physicist at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, who discovered the Unruh effect. Unruh was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He obtained his B.Sc. from the University of Manitoba in 1967, followed by an M.A. (1969) and Ph.D. from Princeton University, New Jersey (1971).

Areas of research

Unruh has made seminal contributions to our understanding of gravity, black holes, cosmology, quantum fields in curved spaces, and the foundations of quantum mechanics, including the discovery of what is now known as the Unruh effect. Most recently, he has been noted for his thoughtful online postings regarding Quantum computing and Quantum cryptography. Today, Unruh continues active research in the field of Quantum gravity. He is skeptical of String theory.

The Unruh effect

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 himself or 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.

The Unruh effect can be expressed in a simple equation giving the equivalent energy "kT" of a uniformly accelerating particle, as:

: $kT\; =\; frac\{hbar\; a\}\{2pi\; c\}$

Awards

*Rutherford Memorial Medal of the Royal Society of Canada, 1982
*Herzberg Medal of the Canadian Association of Physics, 1983
*Steacie Prize, 1984
*Steacie Fellowship, 1984–1986
*BC Science Council Gold Medal, 1990
*Appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society, July 13, 2001

Publications

* [http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRD/v14/p870 "Notes on Black Hole Evaporation", Phys. Rev. D 14, 870 (1976), W.G. Unruh.]
* [http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRD/v40/p2598 "Time and the Interpretation of Canonical Quantum Gravity", Phys. Rev. D 40, 2598 (1989), W.G. Unruh and R. Wald.]
* [http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRD/v40/p1071 "Reduction of a wave packet in quantum Brownian motion", Phys. Rev. D 40 1071, W.G. Unruh and W.H. Zurek.]
*"An introduction to the Multi-Grid Method for Numerical Relativists", General Rel. & Grav. 18, 813 (1985), M. Choptuik and W.G. Unruh.

Trivia

Unruh also appears to be interested in music and teaches the Physics of Music.

External links

* [http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/view_fellow.cfm?FID=1752 Royal Society ID Page]
* [http://www.physics.ubc.ca/physoffice/profs/unruh.html University of British Columbia Physics Dept. page]
* [http://www.rsc.ca/index.php?lang_id=1&page_id=155#TOC23 Rutherford Medal]
* [http://bh0.phas.ubc.ca/b/ Unruh & Wald Fest (A Celebration of the Careers & 60th Birthdays of WG Unruh & RM Wald )]