Unruh Effect and the Breakdown of the Conformal Symmetry

Manuel Calixto

We revise the Unruh effect (vacuum radiation in uniformly relativistic accelerated frames) in a group-theoretical setting by constructing a conformal SO(4,2)-invariant quantum field theory and its spontaneous breakdown when selecting Poincaré invariant degenerated vacua (namely, coherent states of conformal zero modes). Special conformal transformations (accelerations) destabilize the Poincaré vacuum and make it to radiate as a black body. Deviations from the Unruh's formula and the existence of a maximal acceleration are direct consequences of this group-theoretical revision.