This thesis is mainly about extensions of the first-order logic axiomatization of special relativity introduced by Andréka, Madarász and Németi. These extensions include extension to accelerated observers, relativistic dynamics and general relativity; however, its main subject is the extension to accelerated observers (AccRel). One surprising result is that natural extension to accelerated observers is not enough if we want our theory to imply certain experimental facts, such as the twin paradox. Even if we add the whole first-order theory of real numbers to this natural extension, it is still not enough to imply the twin paradox. Nevertheless, that does not mean that this task cannot be carried out within first-order logic since by approximating a second-order logic axiom of real numbers, we introduce a first-order axiom schema that solves the problem. Our theory AccRel nicely fills the gap between special and general relativity theories, and only one natural generalization step is needed to achieve a first-order logic axiomatization of general relativity from it. We also show that AccRel is strong enough to make predictions about the gravitational effect slowing down time. Our general aims are to axiomatize relativity theories within pure first-order logic using simple, comprehensible and transparent basic assumptions (axioms); to prove the surprising predictions (theorems) of relativity theories from a few convincing axioms; to eliminate tacit assumptions from relativity by replacing them with explicit axioms formulated in first-order logic (in the spirit of the first-order logic foundation of mathematics and Tarski's axiomatization of geometry); and to investigate the relationship between the axioms and the theorems.
We investigate the possible structures of numbers (as physical quantities) over which accelerated observers can be modeled in special relativity. We present a general axiomatic theory of accelerated observers which has a model over every real closed field. We also show that, if we would like to model certain accelerated observers, then not every real closed field is suitable, e.g., uniformly accelerated observers cannot be modeled over the field of real algebraic numbers. Consequently, the class of fields over which uniform acceleration can be investigated is not axiomatizable in the language …
The acceleration transformations form a 4-parameter Abelian subgroup of the conformal group of Minkowski spacetime. The passive interpretation of acceleration transformations leads to a congruence of uniformly accelerated observers in Minkowski spacetime. The properties of this congruence are studied in order to illustrate the kinematics of accelerated observers in relativistic physics. The generalization of this approach under conformal rescaling of the spacetime metric is examined.
The nonlocal theory of accelerated systems is extended to the propagation of Dirac particles. The implications of nonlocality for the phenomenon of spin-rotation coupling are discussed. The Lorentz-invariant nonlocal Dirac equation is presented for certain special classes of accelerated observers.
The influence of Unruh effect on the quantum and classical correlation of a quantum entangled state is investigated, when one or two of the observers are accelerated. It is found that the quantum and classical correlation would approach to a finite value with the increase of the acceleration when only one observer is accelerated, but they would decrease to zero quickly when two observers are accelerated. The latter result implies that the gravitational field would break the correlation obviously when the acceleration is caused by the gravitational field. Thus, when the two observers stay in th…
In Minkowski space, an accelerated reference frame may be defined as one that is related to an inertial frame by a sequence of instantaneous Lorentz transformations. Such an accelerated observer sees a causal horizon, and the quantum vacuum of the inertial observer appears thermal to the accelerated observer, also known as the Unruh effect. We argue that an accelerating frame may be similarly defined (i.e. as a sequence of instantaneous Lorentz transformations) in noncommutative Moyal spacetime, and discuss the twisted quantum field theory appropriate for such an accelerated observer. Our anal…
The general construction of extended refrence frames for noninertial observers in flat space is studied. It is shown that, if the observer moves inertially before and after an arbitrary acceleration and rotation, the region where reference frames can coincide with an inertial system is bounded for final velocities exceeding 0.6 c.
We investigate the limitations of length measurements by accelerated observers in Minkowski spacetime brought about via the hypothesis of locality, namely, the assumption that an accelerated observer at each instant is equivalent to an otherwise identical momentarily comoving inertial observer. We find that consistency can be achieved only in a rather limited neighborhood around the observer with linear dimensions that are negligibly small compared to the characteristic acceleration length of the observer.
The quantum mechanical evolution of an accelerated extended detector coupled to a massless scalar field is exhibited and the back-reaction due to emission or absorption processes computed at first order in the change of the detector's mass and acceleration. An analogy with black hole evaporation is found and illustrated.
Based on the Hawking-Unruh thermalization theorem, we investigate the phenomenon of the dynamical chiral symmetry breaking and its restoration for a uniformly accelerated observer. We employ the Nambu$-$Jona-Lasinio model in Rindler coordinates, and calculate the effective potential and the gap equation. The critical coupling and the critical acceleration for symmetry restoration are obtained.
In this work we study the chiral phase transition as observed by an accelerating observer taking into account the Unruh effect. We use Chiral Perturbation Theory at leading order and the large $N$ limit ($N$ being the number of pions) as an effective description of low-energy QCD, and the Thermalization Theorem to compute the relevant partition function for the accelerating observer. As a result, we obtain that chiral symmetry is restored for uniformly accelerated observers with acceleration $a$ larger than the critical value $a_c=4πf_π$, with $f_π$ being the pion decay constant.
According to the locality postulate of special relativity, the measurements of physical fields by accelerated observers at a given event in Minkowski spacetime are related to each other by the representations of the Lorentz group. Nonlocal extensions of these representations are necessary, however, once acceleration-induced nonlocality is taken into account. The particular case of Dirac spinors is treated in detail and the corresponding nonlocal transformation group is studied.
Nonperturbative analysis of quantum entanglement and quantum teleportation protocol using oscillator variables carried by observers in relativistic motion under the continuous influence of the environment is given. The full time evolution of quantum entanglement among static and accelerated observers is studied. The environment plays a dual role. While it creates bipartite and tripartite entanglement among observers even when the initial state is separable, it suppresses the entanglement via decoherence. Motivated by the black hole information problem, we consider quantum teleportation between…
Geodesic completeness is typically regarded as a basic criterion to determine whether a given spacetime is regular or singular. However, the principle of general covariance does not privilege any family of observers over the others and, therefore, observers with arbitrary motions should be able to provide a complete physical description of the world. This suggests that in a regular spacetime, all physically acceptable observers should have complete paths. In this work we explore this idea by studying the motion of accelerated observers in spherically symmetric spacetimes and illustrate it by c…
We study the propagation of light in the Born-Infeld (BI) background as seen by an accelerated observer. In a Born-Infeld electromagnetic field, light trajectories are governed by the null geodesics of the effective optical metric. The accelerated observer is in a Rindler frame, a situation that, according to the Einstein Equivalence Principle, is equivalent to being in a uniform gravitational field. The phase velocity of light propagating through a purely magnetic or electric BI background is determined as measured by the Rindler observer. The BI field and the acceleration of the frame have o…
In special relativity, the definition of coordinate systems adapted to generic accelerated observers is a long-standing problem, which has found unequivocal solutions only for the simplest motions. We show that the Marzke-Wheeler construction, an extension of the Einstein synchronization convention, produces accelerated systems of coordinates with desirable properties: (a) they reduce to Lorentz coordinates in a neighborhood of the observers' world-lines; (b) they index continuously and completely the causal envelope of the world-line (that is, the intersection of its causal past and its causa…
Entanglement of Dirac fields has been studied and it is known to decrease with increasing acceleration when a quantum state is shared between users in non-inertial frames. A new form of an entangled vacuum state observed by the accelerated observer is postulated in which it is assumed that entanglement is present between the modes of the quantum field with sharp and opposite momenta defined in two causally disconnected regions of space-time. We find that this assumption does not affect the entanglement of the system.
The kinematical quantities derived from the velocity field of a nongeodesic congruence are studied. We found the shear tensor components are finite in time but diverge at the event horizon of the spacetime located at $ρ= 0$. The surface gravity on the horizon is just the proper acceleration of the uniformly expanding distribution of observers, in spherical Rindler coordinates. The Raychaudhuri equation is fulfilled for the congruence of particles worldlines.
Physicists have been interested in accelerated observers for quite some time. Since the advent of special relativity, many authors have tried to understand these observers in the framework of Minkowski spacetime. One of the most important issues related to these observers is the problematic definition of rigid motion. In this paper, I write the metric in terms of the Frenet-Serret curvatures and the proper coordinate system of a general accelerated observer. Then, I use this approach to create a systematic way to construct a rigid motion in Minkowski spacetime. Finally, I exemplify the benefit…
After a review of the existing theory of non-inertial frames and mathematical observers in Minkowski space-time we give the explicit expression of a family of such frames obtained from the inertial ones by means of point-dependent Lorentz transformations as suggested by the locality principle. These non-inertial frames have non-Euclidean 3-spaces and contain the differentially rotating ones in Euclidean 3-spaces as a subcase. Then we discuss how to replace mathematical accelerated observers with dynamical ones (their world-lines belong to interacting particles in an isolated system) and of how…
If the current acceleration of our Universe is due to a cosmological constant, then a Coleman-De Luccia bubble will nucleate in our Universe. In this work, we consider that our observations could be likely in this framework, consisting in two infinite spaces, if a foliation by constant mean curvature hypersurfaces is taken to count the events in the spacetime. Thus, we obtain and study a particular foliation, which covers the existence of most observers in our part of spacetime.
These pedagogical notes are dedicated to a derivation of the Unruh effect. There is special emphasis on the transparency of the arguments and the exhibition of detailed calculations. We assume the reader has a basic knowledge of quantum mechanics and relativity. The notes can hopefully be used in a self-contained way by advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate students.
Recently, Hawking, Perry and Strominger described a physical process that implants supertranslational hair on a Schwarzschild black hole by an infalling matter shock wave without spherical symmetry. Using the BMS-type symmetries of the Rindler horizon, we present an analogous process that implants supertranslational hair on a Rindler horizon by a matter shock wave without planar symmetry, and we investigate the corresponding memory effect on the Rindler family of uniformly linearly accelerated observers. We assume each observer to remain linearly uniformly accelerated through the wave, in the …
We have studied entanglement between two Dirac modes respectively observed by two independently accelerated observers. Due to Unruh effect, the entanglement degrades, but residual nonzero entanglement remains even when the accelerations of both observers are infinite. We have also investigated quantum teleportation using entangled Dirac modes, and calculated the fidelities in various cases. In general, the fidelity depends on the single-qubit state $γ|0\rangle +δ|1\rangle$ to be teleported, as well as which Bell state to use. In the limit that both accelerations are infinite, the average fidel…
The current article explores the problem of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) trapped in an anisotropic three-dimensional harmonic-oscillator potential, with positive effective interatomic interactions, and the analogue gravity acoustic metric emerging from it. We find that the latter gives rise to a family of conformally equivalent metrics and the space-time interval corresponds to that of an accelerated observer subject to a position-dependent acceleration. Furthermore, such acceleration can be deduced differentiating the potential of the trap, which leads us to infer that, for a Bose-Einstei…
Assuming that an accelerated observer with four-velocity ${\bf u}_{\rm R}$ in a curved spacetime attributes the standard Bekenstein-Hawking entropy and Unruh temperature to his "local Rindler horizon", we show that the $\rm \it change$ in horizon area under parametric displacements of the horizon has a very specific thermodynamic structure. Specifically, it entails information about the time-time component of the Einstein tensor: $\bf G({\bf u}_{\rm R}, {\bf u}_{\rm R})$. Demanding that the result holds for all accelerated observers, this actually becomes a statement about the full Einstein te…
The measurement of an electromagnetic radiation field by a linearly accelerated observer is discussed. The nonlocality of this process is emphasized. The nonlocal theory of accelerated observers is briefly described and the consequences of this theory are illustrated using a concrete example involving the measurement of an incident pulse of radiation by an observer that experiences uniform acceleration during a limited interval of time.
A detector undergoing uniform acceleration $a$ in a vacuum field responds just as though it were immersed in thermal radiation of temperature $T=\hbar a/2πk c$. A simple, intuitive derivation of this result is given for the case of a scalar field in one spatial dimension. The approach is then extended to treat the case where the field seen by the accelerated observer is a spin-1/2 Dirac field.
We discuss an effect of accelerated mirrors which remained hitherto unnoticed, the formation of a field condensate near its surface for massive fields. From the view point of an observer attached to the mirror, this is effect is rather natural because a gravitational field is felt there. The novelty here is that since the effect is not observer dependent even inertial observers will detect the formation of this condensate. We further show that this localization is in agreement with Bekenstein's entropy bound.
We evaluate the energy-momentum of the gravitational field of a Schwarzschild black hole of mass M in the frame of a moving observer that asymptotically undergoes a Lorentz boost. The analysis is carried out in the framework of the teleparallel equivalent of general relativity (TEGR). We find that the total expression for the energy-momentum of the gravitational field is similar to the usual relativistic expression for the energy-momentum four-vector of a particle of inertial mass M under a Lorentz boost in flat space-time. Moreover we conclude that if the observer accelerates with respect to …
The sampled negative energy density seen by inertial observers, in arbitrary quantum states is limited by quantum inequalities, which take the form of an inverse relation between the magnitude and duration of the negative energy. The quantum inequalities severely limit the utilization of negative energy to produce gross macroscopic effects, such as violations of the second law of thermodynamics. The restrictions on the sampled energy density along the worldlines of accelerated observers are much weaker than for inertial observers. Here we will illustrate this with several explicit examples. We…
All existing 4-coordinate systems centered on the world-line of an accelerated observer are only locally defined like it happens for Fermi coordinates both in special and general relativity. As a consequence, it is not known how non-inertial observers can build {\it equal-time surfaces} which a) correspond to a conventional observer-dependent definition of synchronization of distant clocks; b) are good Cauchy surfaces for Maxwell equations. Another type of coordinate singularities are those connected to the relativistic rotating coordinate systems (the rotating disk).We show that the use of Ha…
We study communication between an inertial observer and one of two causally-disconnected counter accelerating observers. We will restrict the quantum channel considering inertial-to-accelerated bipartite classical and quantum communication over different sets of Unruh modes (single-rail or dual-rail encoding). We find that the coherent information (and therefore, the amount of entanglement that can be generated via state merging protocol) in this strongly restricted channel presents some interesting monogamy properties between the inertial and only one of the accelerated observers if we take a…
We present a theory of accelerated observers in the formalism of holographic space time, and show how to define the analog of the Unruh effect for a one parameter set of accelerated observers in a causal diamond in Minkowski space. The key fact is that the formalism splits the degrees of freedom in a large causal diamond into particles and excitations on the horizon. The latter form a large heat bath for the particles, and different Hamiltonians, describing a one parameter family of accelerated trajectories, have different couplings to the bath. We argue that for a large but finite causal diam…
We consider a continuous-variable quantum teleportation protocol between a uniformly accelerated sender in the right Rindler wedge, a conformal receiver restricted to the future light cone, and an inertial observer in the Minkowski vacuum. Using a non-perturbative quantum circuit model, the accelerated observer interacts unitarily with the Rindler modes of the field, thereby accessing entanglement of the vacuum as a resource. We find that a Rindler-displaced Minkowski vacuum state prepared and teleported by the accelerated observer appears mixed according to the inertial observer, despite a re…
We consider a monopole detector interacting with a massive scalar field. The radiative processes are discussed from the accelerated frame point of view. After this, we obtain the Minkowski vacuum stress tensor measured by the accelerated observer using a non-gravitational stress tensor detector as discussed by Ford and Roman (PRD 48, 776 (1993)). Finally, we analyse radiative processes of the monopole detector travelling in a world line that is inertial in the infinite past and has a constant proper acceleration in the infinite future.
Nonlocal electrodynamics is a formalism developed to include nonlocal effects in the measurement process caused by the non-inertial state of the observers. This theory modifies Maxwell's electrodynamics by eliminating the hypothesis of locality that assumes an accelerated observer simultaneously equivalent to a comoving inertial frame of reference. In this scenario, the transformation between an inertial and accelerated observer is generalized which affects the properties of physical fields. In particular, we analyze how an uniformly accelerated observer perceives a homogeneous and isotropic b…
Two observers determine the entanglement between two free bosonic modes by each detecting one of the modes and observing the correlations between their measurements. We show that a state which is maximally entangled in an inertial frame becomes less entangled if the observers are relatively accelerated. This phenomenon, which is a consequence of the Unruh effect, shows that entanglement is an observer-dependent quantity in non-inertial frames. In the high acceleration limit, our results can be applied to a non-accelerated observer falling into a black hole while the accelerated one barely esca…
In this paper we re-investigate the Bogoliubov transformations which relate the Minkowski inertial vacuum to the vacuum of an accelerated observer. We implement the transformation using a non-unitary operator used in formulations of irreversible systems by Prigogine. We derive a Lyapunov function which signifies an irreversible time flow. We extend the formalism to the black hole space-time which has similar near-horizon geometry of an accelerated observer, and in addition show that thermalization is due to presence of black hole and white hole regions. Finally we discuss an attempt to general…
We study the foundation of space-time theory in the framework of first-order logic (FOL). Since the foundation of mathematics has been successfully carried through (via set theory) in FOL, it is not entirely impossible to do the same for space-time theory (or relativity). First we recall a simple and streamlined FOL-axiomatization SpecRel of special relativity from the literature. SpecRel is complete with respect to questions about inertial motion. Then we ask ourselves whether we can prove usual relativistic properties of accelerated motion (e.g., clocks in acceleration) in SpecRel. As it tur…
Due to the Unruh effect, accelerated and inertial observers differ in their description of a given quantum state. The implications of this effect are explored for the entropy assigned by such observers to localized objects that may cross the associated Rindler horizon. It is shown that the assigned entropies differ radically in the limit where the number of internal states $n$ becomes large. In particular, the entropy assigned by the accelerated observer is a bounded function of $n$. General arguments are given along with explicit calculations for free fields. The implications for discussions …
The quantum fluctuations of an "accelerated" vacuum state, that is vacuum fluctuations in the presence of a constant electromagnetic field, can be described by the temperature $\TEH$. Considering $\TEH$ for the gyromagnetic factor $g=1$ we show that $\TEH(g=1)=\THU$, where $\THU$ is the Unruh temperature experienced by an accelerated observer. We conjecture that both particle production and nonlinear field effects inherent in the Unruh accelerated observer case are described by the case $g=1$ QED of strong fields. We present rates of particle production for $g=0,1,2$ and show that the case $g=…
Peculiar velocities change the expansion rate of any observer moving relative to the smooth Hubble flow. As a result, observers in a galaxy like our Milky Way can experience accelerated expansion within a globally decelerating universe, even when the drift velocities are small. The effect is local, but the affected scales can be large enough to give the false impression that the whole cosmos has recently entered an accelerating phase. Generally, peculiar velocities are also associated with dipole-like anisotropies, triggered by the fact that they introduce a preferred spatial direction. This i…
We show, by exploring some elementary consequences of the covariance of Maxwell's equations under general coordinate transformations, that, despite inertial observers can indeed detect electromagnetic radiation emitted from a uniformly accelerated charge, comoving observers will see only a static electric field. This simple analysis can help understanding one of the most celebrated paradoxes of last century.
The standard relativistic theory of accelerated reference frames in Minkowski spacetime is described. The measurements of accelerated observers are considered and the limitations of the standard theory, based on the hypothesis of locality, are pointed out. The physical principles of the nonlocal theory of accelerated observers are presented. The implications of the nonlocal theory are briefly discussed.
We investigate the quantum field aspects in flat spacetime for an uniformly accelerated observer moving in a thermal bath. In particular, we obtain an exact closed expression of the reduced density matrix for an uniformly accelerated observer with acceleration $a = 2πT$ when the state of the quantum field is a thermal bath at temperature $T^\prime$. We find that the density matrix has a simple form with an effective partition function $Z$ being a product, $Z = Z_T Z_{T^\prime}$, of two thermal partition functions corresponding to temperatures $T$ and $T^\prime$ and hence is not thermal, even w…
Building on the well-known Unruh-Davies effect, we examine the effects of projective measurements and quantum communications between accelerated and stationary observers. We find that the projective measurement by a uniformly accelerated observer can excite real particles from the vacuum in the inertial frame, even if no additional particles are created by the measurement process in the accelerating frame. Furthermore, we show that the particles created by this accelerating measurement can be highly entangled in the inertial frame, and it is also possible to use this process to generate even m…
A correlation between accelerated motion and a noncompact 5th dimension is proposed. The curvature invariants and the stress energy tensor in the bulk depend only on the 5th dimension $w$ and vanish asymptotically while the proper acceleration of a static observer is proportional to $1/w$. The brane (located at $w = w_{0}$) metric is conformally flat (of AdS type) with $Λ= -3/w_{0}^{2}$ and the invariant acceleration $a = \sqrt{a^{b}a_{b}} = 1/w_{0}$. Therefore, we assume that a hyperbolic observer with the rest-system acceleration $a$ is embedded in the 5th dimension at $w_{0} = 1/a$.
The conceptual basis for the nonlocality of accelerated systems is presented. The nonlocal theory of accelerated observers and its consequences are briefly described. Nonlocal field equations are developed for the case of the electrodynamics of linearly accelerated systems.
After a review of the 1+3 point of view on non-inertial observers and of the problems of rotating reference frames, we underline that was is lacking in their treatment is a good global notion of simultaneity due to the restricted validity of the existing 4-coordinates associated to an accelerated observer (like the Fermi normal ones). We show that the relativistic Hamiltonian 3+1 point of view, based on a 3+1 splitting of Minkowski space-time with a foliation whose space-like leaves are both simultaneity and Cauchy surfaces, allows to find a solution to such problems, if we take into account M…
We study the role of acceleration in the twin paradox. From the coordinate transformation that relates an accelerated and an inertial observer we find that, from the point of view of the accelerated observer, the rate of the differential lapses of time depends not only on the relative velocity, but also on the product of the acceleration and the distance between the observers. However, this result does not have a direct operational interpretation because an observer at a certain position can measure only physical quantities that are defined at the same position. For local measurements, the asy…
We show that the emission of a Minkowski particle by a general class of scalar sources as described by inertial observers corresponds to either the emission or the absorption of a Rindler particle as described by uniformly accelerated observers. Our results are discussed in connection with the current controversy whether uniformly accelerated detectors radiate.
