arXiv · gr-qc/0608133
Local Temperature in Curved Spacetime
Abstract
A physically meaningful local concept of temperature is introduced in quantum field theory on curved spacetime and applied to the example of a massless field on de Sitter space. It turns out in this model that the equilibrium (Gibbs) states which can be prepared by a geodesic observer have in general a varying temperature distribution in the neighborhood of the geodesic and may not even allow for a consistent thermal interpretation close to the horizon. This result, which can be traced back to the Unruh effect, illustrates the failure of a global notion of temperature in curved spacetime and reveals the need for a local concept, as presented here.
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Detlev Buchholz, Jan Schlemmer. 2007-03-09. Local Temperature in Curved Spacetime. https://doi.org/10.1088/0264-9381%2F24%2F7%2Ff01
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