Coherent States of Accelerated Relativistic Quantum Particles, Vacuum Radiation and the Spontaneous Breakdown of the Conformal SU(2,2) Symmetry

preprint2011arXivOpen access

Abstract

We give a quantum mechanical description of accelerated relativistic particles in the framework of Coherent States (CS) of the (3+1)-dimensional conformal group SU(2,2), with the role of accelerations played by special conformal transformations and with the role of (proper) time translations played by dilations. The accelerated ground state ϕ~0\tildeϕ_0 of first quantization is a CS of the conformal group. We compute the distribution function giving the occupation number of each energy level in ϕ~0\tildeϕ_0 and, with it, the partition function Z, mean energy E and entropy S, which resemble that of an "Einstein Solid". An effective temperature T can be assigned to this "accelerated ensemble" through the thermodynamic expression dE/dS, which leads to a (non linear) relation between acceleration and temperature different from Unruh's (linear) formula. Then we construct the corresponding conformal-SU(2,2)-invariant second quantized theory and its spontaneous breakdown when selecting Poincaré-invariant degenerated θ-vacua (namely, coherent states of conformal zero modes). Special conformal transformations (accelerations) destabilize the Poincaré vacuum and make it to radiate.

Explore this paper’s authors, topics and related work.

Building this map preview

BZPEER is loading the nearby papers, people, topics and institutions for this page.

Reviews 0

Write a reviewWrite

No reviews yet.

Discussion 0

Add a commentWrite

No comments yet.