Analyticity and the Unruh effect: a study of local modular flow

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Author: Sorce, Jonathan
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Sorce, Jonathan
author_facet Sorce, Jonathan
contents The Unruh effect can be formulated as the statement that the Minkowski vacuum in a Rindler wedge has a boost as its modular flow. In recent years, other examples of states with geometrically local modular flow have played important roles in understanding energy and entropy in quantum field theory and quantum gravity. Here I initiate a general study of the settings in which geometric modular flow can arise, showing (i) that any geometric modular flow must be a conformal symmetry of the background spacetime, and (ii) that in a well behaved class of "weakly analytic" states, geometric modular flow must be future-directed. I further argue that if a geometric transformation is conformal but not isometric, then it can only be realized as modular flow in a conformal field theory. Finally, I discuss a few settings in which converse results can be shown -- i.e., settings in which a state can be constructed whose modular flow reproduces a given vector field.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2403_18937
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Analyticity and the Unruh effect: a study of local modular flow
Sorce, Jonathan
High Energy Physics - Theory
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Quantum Physics
The Unruh effect can be formulated as the statement that the Minkowski vacuum in a Rindler wedge has a boost as its modular flow. In recent years, other examples of states with geometrically local modular flow have played important roles in understanding energy and entropy in quantum field theory and quantum gravity. Here I initiate a general study of the settings in which geometric modular flow can arise, showing (i) that any geometric modular flow must be a conformal symmetry of the background spacetime, and (ii) that in a well behaved class of "weakly analytic" states, geometric modular flow must be future-directed. I further argue that if a geometric transformation is conformal but not isometric, then it can only be realized as modular flow in a conformal field theory. Finally, I discuss a few settings in which converse results can be shown -- i.e., settings in which a state can be constructed whose modular flow reproduces a given vector field.
title Analyticity and the Unruh effect: a study of local modular flow
topic High Energy Physics - Theory
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.18937