Remarks on Rindler Quantization

Abstract

We review the quantization of scalar and gauge fields using Rindler coordinates with an emphasis on the physics of the Rindler horizon. In the thermal state at the Unruh temperature, correlators match their Minkowski vacuum values and the renormalized stress tensor vanishes, while at any other temperature the renormalized stress-energy diverges on the horizon. After giving a new derivation of some of these results using canonical quantization in the thermofield double state, we comment on the relevance of fluxes and boundary conditions at the horizon, which have arisen in calculations of entanglement entropy.