Looking beyond the Thermal Horizon: Hidden Symmetries in Chiral Models

Abstract

In thermal states of chiral theories, as recently investigated by H.-J. Borchers and J. Yngvason, there exists a rich group of hidden symmetries. Here we show that this leads to a radical converse of of the Hawking-Unruh observation in the following sense. The algebraic commutant of the algebra associated with a (heat bath) thermal chiral system can be used to reprocess the thermal system into a ground state system on a larger algebra with a larger localization space-time. This happens in such a way that the original system appears as a kind of generalized Unruh restriction of the ground state sytem and the thermal commutant as being transmutated into newly created ``virgin space-time region'' behind a horizon. The related concepts of a ``chiral conformal core'' and the possibility of a ``blow-up'' of the latter suggest interesting ideas on localization of degrees of freedom with possible repercussion on how to define quantum entropy of localized matter content in Local Quantum Physics.