How do thermal quantum systems hide flat-space symmetries?

Using conformal symmetry, the authors discovered that quantum correlations in heated systems can be derived directly from ordinary scattering processes in flat space by choosing the right operator arrangement. This sidesteps the usual need to track temperature through chemical potentials, and reveals that thermal one-point functions are shadows of four-point flat-space correlators. The result unifies three different geometric settings—flat, thermal, and defect backgrounds—under one mathematical framework.