Vacuum thermal effects in flat space-time from conformal quantum mechanics

Abstract

The generators of radial conformal symmetries in Minkowski space-time can be mapped to the generators of time evolution in conformal quantum mechanics. Within this correspondence we show that in conformal quantum mechanics the state associated to the inertial vacuum in Minkowski space-time has the structure of a thermofield double. Such state is built from a bipartite “vacuum state”, the ground state of the generators of hyperbolic time evolution, which cover only part of the time domain. When time evolution is restricted to a finite time domain one obtains the temperature perceived by static diamond observers in the Minkowski vacuum. When time evolution is determined by dilations, covering only half of the time line, the temperature of the thermofield double corresponds to the non-vanishing temperature perceived by Milne observers whose proper time evolution is confined to the future cone (Milne universe) of Minkowski space-time. The two pictures are related by a conformal transformation on the real line. Our result provides a purely group theoretical derivation of the Milne and diamond temperatures and shows that the fundamental ingredient for vacuum thermal effects is the presence of a horizon rather than acceleration.