Thermodynamics of accelerated fermion gases and their instability at the Unruh temperature

2019/12/09 by George Y. Prokhorov, G. Yu. Prokhorov, Oleg V. Teryaev +3 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.100.125009

Abstract

We demonstrate that the energy density of an accelerated fermion gas evaluated within quantum-statistical approach in Minkowski space is related to a quantum correction to the vacuum expectation value of the energy-momentum tensor in a space with nontrivial metric and conical singularity. The key element of the derivation is the existence of a novel class of polynomial Sommerfeld integrals. The emerging duality of quantum-statistical and geometrical approaches is explicitly checked at temperatures T above or equal to the Unruh temperature T_U. Treating the acceleration as an imaginary part of the chemical potential allows for an analytical continuation to temperatures T<T_U. There is a discontinuity at T=T_U manifested in the second derivative of the energy density with respect to the temperature. Moreover, energy density becomes negative at T<T_U, apparently indicating some instability. Obtained results might have phenomenological implications for the physics of heavy-ion collisions.

Citations

• Unruh effect for fermions from the Zubarev density operator

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• Chiral symmetry breaking in accelerating and rotating frames

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