Related papers: Negative Energies and Field Theory
In has been recently shown [1] that in Dirac's hole theory the vacuum state is not the minimum energy state but that there exist quantum states with less energy than that of the vacuum state. In this paper we extend this discussion to…
Negative energy density is unavoidable in the quantum theory of field. We give a revised proof of the existence of negative energy density unambiguously for a massless scalar field.
Quantum field theory is assumed to be gauge invariant. It is shown that for a Dirac field the assumption of gauge invariance impacts on the way the vacuum state is defined. It is shown that the conventional definition of the vacuum state…
The stability of the vacuum for QED in the temporal gauge will be examined. It is generally assumed that the vacuum state is the quantum state with the lowest energy. However, it will be shown that this is not the case for a system…
In order for Dirac theory to be gauge invariant it can be shown that the Schwinger term must be zero. However, it can also be shown that for the vacuum state to be the lowest energy state the Schwinger term must be nonzero. Therefore there…
In this paper we study a new symmetry argument that results in a vacuum state with strictly vanishing vacuum energy. This argument exploits the well-known feature that de Sitter and Anti- de Sitter space are related by analytic…
A common assumption in quantum field theory is that the energy-momentum 4-vector of any quantum state must be timelike. It will be proven that this is not the case for a Dirac-Maxwell field. In this case quantum states can be shown to exist…
We study the properties of a class of quantum field theories endowed with an equal number of anti commuting and commuting field variables, the most common example being the supersymmetric models. Based on the scaling properties of the…
It is generally assumed that the vacuum state is the quantum state with the lowest energy. However, it has been shown that this is not the case for a Dirac-Maxwell field in the temporal gauge. In this paper we will present another proof,…
It is shown that the canonical quantum field theory of radiation based on the field theoretical generalization of a recently proposed [1] commutation relation between position and momentum operators of massless particles leads to zero…
We define the state of minimum energy while the expectation values of the field operators and their time derivatives in a determined moment in such a state are constrained. As an axiom, we consider such a state as the background of the…
"Negative energy" has been one of the most enduring puzzles in quantum theory, whereas the present work reveals that it actually plays a central role in clarifying various controversies of quantum theory. The basic idea is contained in a…
It is argued that the zero-point energies of free quantum fields diverge at most quadratically and not quartically, as is generally believed. This is a consequence of the relativistic invariance which requires that the energy density of the…
We study properties of a scalar quantum field theory on two-dimensional noncommutative space-times. Contrary to the common belief that noncommutativity of space-time would be a key to remove the ultraviolet divergences, we show that field…
It will be argued here that the cosmological constant problem exists because of the way the vacuum is defined in quantum field theory. It has been known for some time that for QFT to be gauge invariant certain terms--such as part of the…
In quantum theory the vacuum is defined as a state of minimum energy that is devoid of particles but still not completely empty. It is perhaps more surprising that its definition depends on the geometry of the system and on the trajectory…
In Dirac's hole theory the vacuum state is generally believed to be the state of minimum energy. However it has recently been shown that this is not the case. In [1] it was shown that energy can be extracted from the hole theory vacuum…
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…
Quantum Electrodynamics can be formulated as the theory of an antisymmetric tensor gauge field. In this formulation the topological current of this field appears as an additional source for the electromagnetic field. The topological charge…
Quantum field theory allows for the suppression of vacuum fluctuations, leading to sub-vacuum phenomena. One of these is the appearance of local negative energy density. Selected aspects of negative energy will be reviewed, including the…