Analyticity and the Unruh effect: a study of local modular flow
Name
13130_2024_Article_24417.pdf
Size
657.82 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
26b3bb4354c94868ae75396d103981e3
Author(s)
Sorce, Jonathan
Date Issued
September 9, 2024
Journal
Journal of High Energy Physics
Publisher
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Citation
Sorce, J. Analyticity and the Unruh effect: a study of local modular flow. J. High Energ. Phys. 2024, 40 (2024).
Version
Final published version
Abstract
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.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Theoretical Physics
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP09(2024)040
