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

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 ${\tilde{\varphi }}_0$ of first quantization is a CS of the conformal group. We compute the distribution function giving the occupation number of each energy level in ${\tilde{\varphi }}_0$ 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.

25 pages, LaTeX, 3 figures. Additional information (resulting in four extra pages) and a slight change of focus has been introduced in order to make the line of arguments more clear. Title changed accordingly