Quantum fields on curved spacetimes and a new look at the Unruh effect

Abstract

We describe a new viewpoint on canonical quantization of linear fields on a general curved background that encompasses and generalizes the standard treatment of canonical QFT given in textbooks. Our method permits the construction of pure states and mixed stated with the same technique. We apply our scheme to the study of Rindler QFT and we present a new derivation of the Unruh effect based on invariance arguments.