Symmetry, Integrability and Geometry: Methods and Applications (SIGMA)


SIGMA 9 (2013), 019, 22 pages      arXiv:1204.6268      https://doi.org/10.3842/SIGMA.2013.019

The Unruh Effect in General Boundary Quantum Field Theory

Daniele Colosi a and Dennis Rätzel b
a) Centro de Ciencias Matemáticas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Campus Morelia, C.P. 58190, Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico
b) Albert Einstein Institute, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics, Am Mühlenberg 1, 14476 Golm, Germany

Received November 07, 2012, in final form February 24, 2013; Published online March 02, 2013

Abstract
In the framework of the general boundary formulation (GBF) of scalar quantum field theory we obtain a coincidence of expectation values of local observables in the Minkowski vacuum and in a particular state in Rindler space. This coincidence could be seen as a consequence of the identification of the Minkowski vacuum as a thermal state in Rindler space usually associated with the Unruh effect. However, we underline the difficulty in making this identification in the GBF. Beside the Feynman quantization prescription for observables that we use to derive the coincidence of expectation values, we investigate an alternative quantization prescription called Berezin-Toeplitz quantization prescription, and we find that the coincidence of expectation values does not exist for the latter.

Key words: quantum field theory; Unruh effect; general boundary formulation.

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