Ralf Banisch, Frank Hellmann, Dennis Raetzel
We show how to adapt the canonical arguments for choosing the physically correct vacuum state to the case of quantum field theory with states on timelike hypersurfaces as formulated in the general boundary formalism. We demonstrate that these fail for evanescent modes which occur naturally in quantum field theory in the presence of the equivalent of a dielectric boundary. We explicitly study the response of an Unruh-DeWitt type detector to these modes. Using this we find that the physically correct vacuum state has to depend on the physical situation outside of the boundaries of the spacetime region considered. Thus it cannot be determined by general principles pertaining only to the spacetime region under consideration.
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http://arxiv.org/abs/1205.1549
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