How to Formulate Non-Equilibrium Local States in QFT? --General Characterization and Extension to Curved Spacetime--

TL;DR

This paper develops a general framework for characterizing non-equilibrium local states in relativistic quantum field theory, extending it to curved spacetime using local comparison with equilibrium states.

Contribution

It introduces a novel formalism for non-equilibrium local states in QFT and extends it to curved spacetime contexts.

Findings

Framework for non-equilibrium states in QFT

Extension to curved spacetime

Comparison with equilibrium states at a point

Abstract

The essence of a general formulation to accommodate non-equilibrium local states in relativistic quantum field theory is explained from the viewpoint of comparison at a spacetime point between unknown generic states to be characterized as such states and the known family of probabilistic mixtures of equilibrium states. Taking advantage of the local nature of the problem, we extend the formalism to the general-relativistic context with curved spacetimes.