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In the present paper, Unruh--DeWitt detectors are used in order to investigate the issue of temperature associated with a spherically symmetric dynamical space-times. Firstly, we review the semi-classical tunneling method, then we introduce the Unruh--DeWitt detector approach. We show that for the generic static black hole case and the FRW de Sitter case, making use of peculiar Kodama trajectories, semiclassical and quantum field theoretic techniques give the same standard and well known thermal interpretation, with an associated temperature, corrected by appropriate Tolman factors. For a FRW space-time interpolating de Sitter space with the Einstein--de Sitter universe (that is a more realistic situation in the frame of $\Lambda$CDM cosmologies), we show that the detector response splits into a de Sitter contribution plus a fluctuating term containing no trace of Boltzmann-like factors, but rather describing the way thermal equilibrium is reached in the late time limit. As a consequence, and unlike the case of black holes, the identification of the dynamical surface gravity of a cosmological trapping horizon as an effective temperature parameter seems lost, at least for our co-moving simplified detectors. The possibility remains that a detector performing a proper motion along a Kodama trajectory may register something more, in which case the horizon surface gravity would be associated more likely to vacuum correlations than to particle creation., Comment: 19 pages, to appear on IJTP. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1101.5254

In the paper, the temperature associated with a dynamical spherically symmetric black hole or with a cosmological horizon is investigated from the point of view of a point-like detector. First, we briefly review the Hamilton-Jacobi tunneling method for a generic dynamical spherically symmetric space-time, and present two applications of the tunneling method. Then, we apply a well-known relativistic quantum theoretical technique, namely the Unruh-DeWitt detector formalism for a conformally coupled scalar field in a generic FRW space-time. As an application, for the generic static black hole case and the FRW de Sitter case, making use of peculiar Kodama observer trajectories, the tunneling semiclassical results are fully recovered, automatically corrected by Tolman factors. Some remarks on the temperature of FRW universe are presented. For more general spaces interpolating de Sitter space with the Einstein-de Sitter universe a second set of poles is present, whose exact role remains to be clarified, plus an extra fluctuating term describing the way equilibrium is reached, similarly to de Sitter space. The simple thermal interpretation found for de Sitter space is lost and forces, at a same time, a different quantum interpretation of the horizon surface gravity for the cosmological FRW models., Comment: 24 pages; 1 figure

In the paper, the temperature associated with a dynamical spherically symmetric black hole or with a cosmological horizon is investigated from the point of view of a point-like detector. First, we briefly review the Hamilton-Jacobi tunneling method for a generic dynamical spherically symmetric space-time, and present two applications of the tunneling method. Then, we apply a well-known relativistic quantum theoretical technique, namely the Unruh-DeWitt detector formalism for a conformally coupled scalar field in a generic FRW space-time. As an application, for the generic static black hole case and the FRW de Sitter case, making use of peculiar Kodama observer trajectories, the tunneling semiclassical results are fully recovered, automatically corrected by Tolman factors. Some remarks on the temperature of FRW universe are presented. For more general spaces interpolating de Sitter space with the Einstein-de Sitter universe a second set of poles is present, whose exact role remains to be clarified, plus an extra fluctuating term describing the way equilibrium is reached, similarly to de Sitter space. The simple thermal interpretation found for de Sitter space is lost and forces, at a same time, a different quantum interpretation of the horizon surface gravity for the cosmological FRW models., Comment: 24 pages; 1 figure

In the present paper, Unruh--DeWitt detectors are used in order to investigate the issue of temperature associated with a spherically symmetric dynamical space-times. Firstly, we review the semi-classical tunneling method, then we introduce the Unruh--DeWitt detector approach. We show that for the generic static black hole case and the FRW de Sitter case, making use of peculiar Kodama trajectories, semiclassical and quantum field theoretic techniques give the same standard and well known thermal interpretation, with an associated temperature, corrected by appropriate Tolman factors. For a FRW space-time interpolating de Sitter space with the Einstein--de Sitter universe (that is a more realistic situation in the frame of $\Lambda$CDM cosmologies), we show that the detector response splits into a de Sitter contribution plus a fluctuating term containing no trace of Boltzmann-like factors, but rather describing the way thermal equilibrium is reached in the late time limit. As a consequence, and unlike the case of black holes, the identification of the dynamical surface gravity of a cosmological trapping horizon as an effective temperature parameter seems lost, at least for our co-moving simplified detectors. The possibility remains that a detector performing a proper motion along a Kodama trajectory may register something more, in which case the horizon surface gravity would be associated more likely to vacuum correlations than to particle creation., Comment: 19 pages, to appear on IJTP. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1101.5254