Simultaneity and the Concept of `Particle'

Abstract

The history of the particle concept is briefly reviewed, with particular emphasis on the `foliation dependence' of many particle creation models, and the possible connection between our notion of particle and our notion of simultaneity. It is argued that the concept of `radar time' (originally introduced by Sir Hermann Bondi in his work on k-calculus) provides a satisfactory concept of `simultaneity' for observers in curved spacetimes. This is used to propose an observer-dependent particle interpretation, applicable to an arbitrary observer, depending solely on that observers motion and not on a choice of coordinates or gauge. This definition is illustrated with application to non-inertial observers and simple cosmologies, demonstrating its generality and its consistency with known cases.