Abstract
We investigate the origin and nature of thermal radiation emitted in two classes of spacetimes: in cosmological spacetimes (in general without event horizon), and in spacetimes with event horizons, such as that of an accelerated observer, a moving mirror, an eternal black hole and the inflationary universe. We propose the viewpoint that the detection of thermal radiance in these systems is a local, kinematic effect arising from the vacuum being subjected to an exponential scale transformation. In contradistinction to viewing these as global, geometric effects as is usually perceived, this viewpoint emphasizes the kinematic effect of scaling on the vacuum in altering the relative weight of quantum versus thermal fluctuations. It can also treat conditions which the geometric viewpoint cannot such as systems which do not have an event horizon. We show that in such systems radiance is indeed observed, albeit not in a precise Planckian spectrum. The deviation therefrom is determined by a parameter which measures the departure from exponential scaling which underlies uniform acceleration, eternal black holes or exact exponential cosmological expansion.
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