The Exact WKB analysis and the Stokes phenomena of the Unruh effect and Hawking radiation

Abstract

The physical observables of quantum theory can be described by perturbation theory, which is often given by diverging power series. This divergence is connected to the existence of non-perturbative phenomena, where resurgence allows us to study this connection. Applying this idea to the WKB expansion, the exact WKB analysis gives a clear connection to non-perturbative phenomena. In this paper, we apply the exact WKB analysis to the Unruh effect and Hawking radiation. The mechanism we found in this paper is similar to the Schwinger effect of a constant electric field, where the background is static but the Stokes phenomenon appears in the temporal part. Comparing this with a sonic black hole, our calculations show a clear discrepancy between them. Then, we briefly explain how quantum backreactions can be included in the exact WKB formalism.