  We show that Casimir-Polder forces between two relativistic uniformly
accelerated atoms exhibit a transition from the short distance thermal-like
behavior predicted by the Unruh effect, to a long distance non-thermal
behavior, associated with the breakdown of a local inertial description of the
system. This phenomenology extends the Unruh thermal response detected by a
single accelerated observer to an accelerated spatially extended system of two
particles, and we identify the characteristic length scale for this crossover
with the inverse of the proper acceleration of the two atoms. Our results are
derived separating at fourth order in perturbation theory the contributions of
vacuum fluctuations and radiation reaction field to the Casimir-Polder
interaction between two atoms moving in two generic stationary trajectories
separated by a constant distance, and linearly coupled to a scalar field. The
field can be assumed in its vacuum state or at finite temperature, resulting in
a general method for the computation of Casimir-Polder forces in stationary
regimes.
