This book will be accessible to students and researchers who have had introductory courses in general relativity and quantum field theory, and will be of interest to scientists in general relativity and related fields.
| Preface | ||
| Notation, Conventions, and Terminology | ||
| 1 | Introduction and Overview | 1 |
| 1.1 | The Formulation of Quantum Field Theory in Curved Spacetime | 1 |
| 1.2 | Classical Black Hole Thermodynamics | 6 |
| 1.3 | The Hawking Effect and Its Ramifications | 8 |
| 2 | Quantum Mechanical Preliminaries | 10 |
| 2.1 | Classical Dynamics of Particle Systems | 10 |
| 2.2 | Quantum Mechanics | 17 |
| 2.3 | Harmonic Oscillators | 21 |
| 3 | Quantum Fields in Flat Spacetime | 31 |
| 3.1 | Basic Construction | 31 |
| 3.2 | Reformulation | 35 |
| 3.3 | Particle Interpretation | 46 |
| 4 | Quantum Fields in Curved Spacetime | 53 |
| 4.1 | Curved Spacetimes; Global Hyperbolicity | 54 |
| 4.2 | Construction of Quantum Field Theory in a Curved Spacetime | 57 |
| 4.3 | Quantum Field Theory in Stationary Spacetimes | 61 |
| 4.4 | Unitary Equivalence; the S-Matrix | 66 |
| 4.5 | The Algebraic Approach | 73 |
| 4.6 | The Stress-Energy Tensor | 85 |
| 4.7 | Other Linear Fields | 100 |
| 5 | The Unruh Effect | 105 |
| 5.1 | The Unruh Effect in Flat Spacetime | 106 |
| 5.2 | Killing Horizons | 118 |
| 5.3 | The Unruh Effect in Curved Spacetimes | 123 |
| 6 | Classical Black Hole Thermodynamics | 133 |
| 6.1 | Classical Black Holes and the Area Theorem | 133 |
| 6.2 | The Laws of Black Hole Mechanics | 139 |
| 7 | The Hawking Effect | 151 |
| 7.1 | Particle Creation by Black Holes | 152 |
| 7.2 | The Generalized Second Law | 163 |
| 7.3 | Evaporation of Black Holes and Loss of Quantum Coherence | 175 |
| Appendix: Some Basic Definitions and Constructions Pertaining to Hilbert Spaces | 188 | |
| A.1 | Some Basic Definitions | 188 |
| A.2 | Some Basic Constructions | 190 |
| A.3 | Index Notation | 192 |
| References | 195 | |
| Notation Index | 201 | |
| General Index | 203 |
Overview