Chiral symmetry breaking and the Unruh effect

Abstract

The possibility of chiral symmetry restoration by acceleration is considered. The Thermalization Theorem formalism and the large $N$ limit (with $N$ being the number of pions) are employed to solve the lowest-order approximation to QCD at low energies in Rindler spacetime. It is shown that chiral symmetry is restored for accelerations higher than the critical value $a_c=4\pi f_{\pi }$, with $f_{\pi }$ being the pion decay constant. The results are completely analogous to those obtained in the inertial, finite-temperature case, evincing the ontic character of the Unruh effect.