Absence of Unruh effect in polymer quantization

Abstract

Unruh effect is a landmark prediction of standard quantum field theory in which Fock vacuum state appears as a thermal state with respect to an uniformly accelerating observer. Given its dependence on trans-Planckian modes, Unruh effect is often considered as an arena for exploring a candidate theory of quantum gravity. Here we show that Unruh effect disappears if, instead of using Fock quantization, one uses polymer quantization or loop quantization, the quantization method used in loop quantum gravity. Secondly, the polymer vacuum state remains a vacuum state even for the accelerating observer in the sense that expectation value of number density operator in it remains zero. Finally, if experimental measurement of Unruh effect is ever possible then it may be used either to verify or rule out a theory of quantum gravity.

6 pages, 1 figure; v2 with improved discussions and notation; several new references added; published in CQG with a slightly different title but the same results

References in corpus (9)

• The Unruh effect and its applications
• Optimal quantum estimation of the Unruh-Hawking effect
• Signatures of the Unruh effect from electrons accelerated by ultra-strong laser fields
• The propagator in polymer quantum field theory
• Table-top creation of entangled multi-keV photon pairs via the Unruh effect
• Low energy Lorentz violation from modified dispersion at high energies
• Two-point functions with an invariant Planck scale and thermal effects
• Primordial polymer perturbations
• Polymer Quantization predicts radiation in inertial frames

Cited by in corpus (12)

• The Unruh effect without thermality
• Probing Lorentz-Invariance-Violation Induced Nonthermal Unruh Effect in Quasi-Two-Dimensional Dipolar Condensates
• The Unruh effect in slow motion
• An exact derivation of the Hawking effect in canonical formulation
• Response of a rotating detector coupled to a polymer quantized field
• Consistent derivation of the Hawking effect for both non-extremal and extremal Kerr black holes
• Low Energy Lorentz Violation in Polymer Quantization Revisited
• Hawking effect in an extremal Kerr black hole spacetime
• Perturbative approach to the entanglement entropy and the area law in Fock and polymer quantization
• Deformation of Nanowires and Nanotubes
• Harvesting entanglement from the Lorentz-violating quantum field vacuum in a dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate
• Quantum Gravity Corrections to the Mean Field Theory of Nucleons