Local versus global temperature under a positive curvature condition (Q1683958)

The author establishes some basic properties of expectation values of the Wick square of free scalar fields to verify its use as a local thermometer. If \(T=\beta^{-1}\) is the global temperature for the \(\beta\)-KMS state \(\omega^{(\beta)}\), then in the paper, \(T\) and the local temperature \(T_\omega(x)\), introduced by \textit{D. Buchholz} and \textit{J. Schlemmer} [Classical Quantum Gravity 24, No. 7, F25--F31 (2007; Zbl 1112.83027)], are compared, for a massless free scalar field in a globally hyperbolic spacetime. Whenever \(T_\omega(x)\) is defined, then it is established that it is a continuous, monotonically decreasing function of \(\beta\) at every point \(x\). Moreover, \(T_\omega(x)\) is defined when \(M\) is ultra-static with compact Cauchy surface and non-trivial scalar curvature \(R\geq 0\), \(\omega\) is stationary and a few other assumptions are satisfied. The necessity of its assumptions is also discussed, providing some counter-examples in an ultra-static spacetime with non-compact Cauchy surface and \(R<0\) somewhere.