Particle detectors and the zero mode of a quantum field

We study the impact of the zero mode of a quantum field on the evolution of a particle detector. For a massless scalar field in a periodic cavity, we show that the impact of the zero mode on the Unruh-DeWitt detector and its derivative-coupling generalization is necessarily nonvanishing but can be made negligible in some limits, including those commonly occurring in nonrelativistic quantum optics. For the derivative-coupling detector this can be accomplished by just tuning the zero mode's initial state, but the standard Unruh-DeWitt detector requires a more subtle and careful tuning. Applications include an inertial detector with arbitrary velocity, where we demonstrate the regularity of the ultrarelativistic limit, and a detector with uniform acceleration.