Local Thermal Equilibrium in Quantum Field Theory on Flat and Curved Spacetimes

Abstract

The existence of local thermal equilibrium (LTE) states for quantum field theory in the sense of Buchholz, Ojima and Roos is discussed in a model-independent setting. It is shown that for spaces of finitely many independent thermal observables there always exist states which are in LTE in any compact region of Minkowski spacetime. Furthermore, LTE states in curved spacetime are discussed and it is observed that the original definition of LTE on curved backgrounds given by Buchholz and Schlemmer needs to be modified. Under an assumption related to certain unboundedness properties of the pointlike thermal observables, existence of states which are in LTE at a given point in curved spacetime is established. The assumption is discussed for the sets of thermal observables for the free scalar field considered by Schlemmer and Verch.

arXiv comment16 pages, some minor changes and clarifications; section 4 has been shortened as some unnecessary constructions have been removed

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• Local Thermal Equilibrium States in Relativistic Quantum Field Theory
• Vacuum fluctuation of conformally coupled scalar field in FLRW space-times
• Disjointness of inertial KMS states and the role of Lorentz symmetry in thermalization