Holographic Theory of Accelerated Observers, the S-matrix, and the Emergence of Effective Field Theory

TL;DR

This paper develops a holographic framework for accelerated observers in Minkowski space, deriving an S-matrix from horizon degrees of freedom and showing how effective field theories emerge in quantum gravity.

Contribution

It introduces a holographic model for accelerated observers, connecting horizon degrees of freedom to the S-matrix and effective field theory in quantum gravity.

Findings

Horizon degrees of freedom form a heat bath for particles.

The S-matrix emerges from integrating out horizon degrees of freedom.

Quantum gravity exhibits natural adiabatic switching off of interactions.

Abstract

We present a theory of accelerated observers in the formalism of holographic space time, and show how to define the analog of the Unruh effect for a one parameter set of accelerated observers in a causal diamond in Minkowski space. The key fact is that the formalism splits the degrees of freedom in a large causal diamond into particles and excitations on the horizon. The latter form a large heat bath for the particles, and different Hamiltonians, describing a one parameter family of accelerated trajectories, have different couplings to the bath. We argue that for a large but finite causal diamond the Hamiltonian describing a geodesic observer has a residual coupling to the bath and that the effect of the bath is finite over the long time interval in the diamond. We find general forms of the Hamiltonian, which guarantee that the horizon degrees of freedom will decouple in the limit of large diamonds, leaving over a unitary evolution operator for particles, with an asymptotically conserved energy. That operator converges to the S-matrix in the infinite diamond limit. The S-matrix thus arises from integrating out the horizon degrees of freedom, in a manner reminiscent of, but distinct from, Matrix Theory. We note that this model for the S-matrix implies that Quantum Gravity, as opposed to quantum field theory, has a natural adiabatic switching off of the interactions. We argue that imposing Lorentz invariance on the S-matrix is natural, and guarantees super-Poincare invariance in the HST formalism. Spatial translation invariance is seen to be the residuum of the consistency conditions of HST.