English

Spatially Averaged Quantum Inequalities Do Not Exist in Four-Dimensional Spacetime

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2009-11-07 v2 High Energy Physics - Theory Quantum Physics

Abstract

We construct a particular class of quantum states for a massless, minimally coupled free scalar field which are of the form of a superposition of the vacuum and multi-mode two-particle states. These states can exhibit local negative energy densities. Furthermore, they can produce an arbitrarily large amount of negative energy in a given region of space at a fixed time. This class of states thus provides an explicit counterexample to the existence of a spatially averaged quantum inequality in four-dimensional spacetime.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.gr-qc/0208045,
  title  = {Spatially Averaged Quantum Inequalities Do Not Exist in Four-Dimensional Spacetime},
  author = {L. H. Ford and Adam D. Helfer and Thomas A. Roman},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:gr-qc/0208045},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

13 pages, 1 figure, minor corrections and added comments

R2 v1 2026-07-22T12:36:19.820Z