Dirac field theory in rotating coordinates

Abstract

The Dirac field in Minkowski spacetime is quantized in a rotating coordinate system. In contrast to the scalar case, the natural procedure of defining particles via the Killing vector of the rotating observer yields a canonical quantization scheme. This scheme is inequivalent to the usual Minkowski quantization, and in contrast to the scalar case the rotating observer sees in the inertial vacuum a (nonthermal) spectrum of particles and antiparticles.