Unruh gamma radiation at RHIC?

Varying the proposition that acceleration itself would simulate a thermal environment, we investigate the semiclassical photon radiation as a possible telemetric thermometer of accelerated charges. Based on the classical Jackson formula we obtain the equivalent photon intensity spectrum stemming from a constantly accelerated charge and demonstrate its resemblances to a thermal distribution for high transverse momenta. The inverse transverse slope differs from the famous Unruh temperature: it is larger by a factor of pi. We compare the resulting direct photon spectrum with experimental data for Au-Au collisions at RHIC and speculate about further, analytically solvable acceleration histories. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.