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Related papers: Achronal averaged null energy condition

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We show that Lorentzian (traversable) wormholes and time machines with semi-classical spacetimes are unstable due to their violation of the null energy condition (NEC). Semi-classicality of the energy-momentum tensor in a given quantum…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2009-11-11 Roman V. Buniy , Stephen D. H. Hsu

The Quantum Null Energy Condition (QNEC) is a lower bound on the stress-energy tensor in quantum field theory that has been proved quite generally. It can equivalently be phrased as a positivity condition on the second null shape derivative…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2021-02-03 Mudassir Moosa , Pratik Rath , Vincent Paul Su

We consider the effective stress-energy tensors for the foreground and background sectors in ghost-free bimetric gravity. By considering the symmetries of the theory, we show that the foreground and background null energy conditions (NECs)…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2012-12-06 Valentina Baccetti , Prado Martin-Moruno , Matt Visser

For the quantised, massless, minimally coupled real scalar field in four-dimensional Minkowski space, we show (by an explicit construction) that weighted averages of the null-contracted stress-energy tensor along null geodesics are…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2009-11-07 C. J. Fewster , T. A. Roman

The violation of the null energy condition (NEC) is essential for constructing nonsingular cosmological scenarios, such as Genesis cosmology, which avoids the initial singularity by initiating cosmic evolution from an asymptotically…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2026-03-19 Dong-Hui Yu , Mian Zhu , Yong Cai

We propose a new bound on the average null energy along a finite portion of a null geodesic. We believe our bound is valid on scales small compared to the radius of curvature in any quantum field theory that is consistently coupled to…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2021-04-20 Ben Freivogel , Dimitrios Krommydas

The Quantum Null Energy Condition (QNEC) is a new local energy condition that a general Quantum Field Theory (QFT) is believed to satisfy, relating the classical null energy condition (NEC) to the second functional derivative of the…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2018-07-04 Christian Ecker , Daniel Grumiller , Wilke van der Schee , Philipp Stanzer

We describe general features of formation and disappearance of regular spherically symmetric black holes in semiclassical gravity. The allowed models are critically dependent on the requirement that the resulting objects evolve in finite…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2023-01-03 Pravin Kumar Dahal , Ioannis Soranidis , Daniel R. Terno

The standard energy conditions of classical general relativity are (mostly) linear in the stress-energy tensor, and have clear physical interpretations in terms of geodesic focussing, but suffer the significant drawback that they are often…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2017-03-30 Prado Martin-Moruno , Matt Visser

We extend previous proofs that violations of the null energy condition (NEC) are a generic and universal feature of traversable wormholes to completely non-symmetric time-dependent wormholes. We show that the analysis can be phrased purely…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2009-10-31 David Hochberg , Matt Visser

We study the relation between geodesic completeness, the averaged null energy condition (ANEC), and spatial curvature in Friedmann--Robertson--Walker (FRW) cosmology within classical general relativity. Using the affinely parameterized ANEC…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2026-05-20 Nathan L. Burwig , Damien A. Easson

The quantum null energy condition (QNEC) is a conjectured relation between a null version of quantum field theory energy and derivatives of quantum field theory von Neumann entropy. In some cases, divergences cancel between these two terms…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2018-02-21 Zicao Fu , Donald Marolf

Hawking's black hole area theorem was proven using the null energy condition (NEC), a pointwise condition violated by quantum fields. The violation of the NEC is usually cited as the reason that black hole evaporation is allowed in the…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2023-03-14 Eleni-Alexandra Kontou , Veronica Sacchi

We clarify the role of the oft-misunderstood Null Energy Condition (NEC) in the context of the current cosmological data. In particular, the NEC implies the sum of the total energy density and pressure satisfies $\rho_{tot}+P_{tot} \ge 0$;…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2025-11-12 Robert R. Caldwell , Eric V. Linder

The quantum null energy condition (QNEC) is a quantum generalization of the null energy condition which gives a lower bound on the null energy in terms of the second derivative of the von Neumann entropy or entanglement entropy of some…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2020-03-30 Taha A Malik , Rafael Lopez-Mobilia

The quantum null energy condition (QNEC) is a lower bound on the expectation value of the null-null component of the energy-momentum tensor in terms of null variations of the entanglement entropy. A stronger version of the QNEC (the primary…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2025-06-17 Tanay Kibe , Pratik Roy

Three very recent articles have claimed that it is possible to, at least in theory, either set up positive energy warp drives satisfying the weak energy condition (WEC), or at the very least, to minimize the WEC violations. These claims are…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2022-04-06 Jessica Santiago , Sebastian Schuster , Matt Visser

We establish a new no-go theorem for cosmology: spatially flat ($k=0$) and open ($k=-1$) Friedmann--Robertson--Walker (FRW) non-static spacetimes cannot be simultaneously nonsingular, geodesically complete, and consistent with the averaged…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2026-04-27 Nathan L. Burwig , Damien A. Easson

Energy conditions, especially the null energy condition (NEC), are generically imposed on solutions to retain a physically sensible classical field theory and they also play an important role in the AdS/CFT duality. Using this duality, we…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2021-11-03 Carlos Hoyos , Niko Jokela , Jose Manuel Penín , Alfonso V. Ramallo , Javier Tarrío

We show analytically that the vacuum electromagnetic stress-energy tensor outside a ball with constant dielectric constant and permeability always obeys the weak, null, dominant, and strong energy conditions. There are still no known…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2009-11-10 Noah Graham , Ken D. Olum , Delia Schwartz-Perlov