Symmetry Restoration By Acceleration

TL;DR

This paper investigates how uniform acceleration can restore spontaneous symmetry breaking in a scalar field theory, demonstrating that above a critical acceleration, symmetry is restored, akin to thermal phase transitions, with implications for gravitational effects.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of symmetry restoration due to acceleration using one-loop effective potential and composite operators, confirming recent theoretical predictions.

Findings

Symmetry is restored above a critical acceleration a_c.

Critical acceleration relates to a critical temperature T_c via Unruh effect.

Restoration prevents boson condensation under strong acceleration.

Abstract

The restoration of spontaneous symmetry breaking for a scalar field theory for an accelerated observer is discussed by the one-loop effective potential calculation and by considering the effective potential for composite operators. Above a critical acceleration, corresponding to the critical restoration temperature,T_c, for a Minkowski observer by Unruh relation, i.e. a_c/2\pi=T_c, the symmetry is restored. This result confirms other recent calculations in effective field theories that symmetry restoration can occur for an observer with an acceleration larger than some critical value. From the physical point of view, a constant acceleration is locally equivalent to a gravitational field and the critical acceleration to restore the spontaneous symmetry breaking corresponds to a huge gravitational effect which, therefore, prevents boson condensation.