Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2026

DOI

10.3390/particles9020042

Publication Title

Particles

Volume

9

Issue

2

Pages

42

Abstract

In quantum field theory, the vacuum is popularly considered to be a complex medium populated with virtual particle + antiparticle pairs. To an observer experiencing uniform acceleration, it is generally held that these virtual particles become real, appearing as a gas at a temperature that grows with the acceleration. This is the Unruh effect. However, it has been shown that vacuum complexity is an artifact produced by treating quantum field theory in a manner that does not manifestly enforce causality. Choosing a quantization approach that patently enforces causality, the quantum field theory vacuum is barren, bereft even of virtual particles. We show that acceleration has no effect on a trivial vacuum; hence, there is no Unruh effect in such a treatment of quantum field theory. Since the standard calculations suggesting an Unruh effect are formally consistent, insofar as they have been completed, there must be a canceling contribution that is omitted in the usual analyses. We argue that it is the dynamical action of conventional Lorentz transformations on the structure of an Unruh detector.

Rights

© 2026 by the authors.

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License.

Data Availability

Article states: "The original contributions presented in this study are included in the article. Further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding authors."

Original Publication Citation

Deur, A., Brodsky, S. J., Roberts, C. D., & Terzić, B. (2026). Poincaré invariance and the Unruh effect. Particles, 9(2), Article 42. https://doi.org/10.3390/particles9020042

ORCID

0000-0002-9646-8155 (Terzic)

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