Local Thermal Equilibrium States in Quantum Field Theory

Michael Gransee

João Braga de Góes Vasconcellos, Nicolò Drago, Nicola Pinamonti

Roger Horsley, Wim Schoenmaker

Detlev Buchholz A, Peter Junglas

Christian D. Jäkel

We show that the Reeh–Schlieder property w.r.t. KMS states is a direct consequence of locality, additivity, and the relativistic KMS condition. The latter characterizes the thermal equilibrium states of a relativistic quantum field theory. The statement remains valid even if the given equilibrium state breaks spatial translation invariance.

Detlev Buchholz A, Izumi Ojima, H. Roos

Within the framework of relativistic quantum field theory, a novel method is established which allows to distinguish non-equilibrium states admitting locally a thermodynamic interpretation. The basic idea is to compare these states with global equilibrium states (KMS states) by means of local thermal observables. With the help of such observables, the states can be ordered into classes of increasing local thermal stability. Moreover, it is possible to identify states exhibiting certain specific thermal properties of interest, such as a definite local temperature or entropy density. The method is illustrated in a simple model describing the spatio-temporal evolution of a “big heat bang”. 1