Unruh effect as a result of quantization of spacetime

Lucas C Céleri,Vasileios I Kiosses

doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2018.04.050

Abstract

A way to encode acceleration directly into fields has recently being proposed, thus establishing a new kind of fields, the accelerated fields. The definition of accelerated fields points to the quantization of space and time, analogously to the way quantities like energy and momentum are quantized in usual quantum field theories. Unruh effect has been studied in connection with quantum field theory in curved spacetime and it is described by recruiting a uniformly accelerated observer. In this work, as a first attempt to demonstrate the utility of accelerated fields, we present an alternative way to derive Unruh effect. We show, by studying quantum field theory on quantum spacetime, that Unruh effect can be obtained without changing the reference frame. Thus, in the framework of accelerated fields, the observational confirmation of Unruh effect could be assigned to the existence of quantum properties of spacetime.

Highlights

A way to encode acceleration directly into fields has recently being proposed, establishing a new kind of fields, the accelerated fields
While quantum mechanics arose from experimental observations which could not be reconciled with classical physics, till there is no experimental fact indicating that space and time are quantized
This is because the standard model, which describes all matter we have observed, is based on flat space quantum field theory and general relativity, which describes gravity, takes no account of quantum theory

Summary

Unruh effect as a result of quantization of spacetime

The definition of accelerated fields points to the quantization of space and time, analogously to the way quantities like energy and momentum are quantized in usual quantum field theories. The construction of accelerated fields differs from ordinary quantum field theory and provides a mathematically consistent way to quantize spacetime In this approach, space and time are quantized in the way quantities like energy and momentum are quantized in ordinary quantum field theories. The meaning of this equation is that, at every point in momentum space, characterized by a specific acceleration (xt is acceleration dependent), a pair of spatially separated accelerated particles comes out in coordinate space This is similar to the usual quantum field theory, when vacuum fluctuations induce the creation of a time-like pair

We found that the relationship between and

Findings

From this it follows that