Related papers: Averaged null energy condition violation in a conf…
The non-minimal coupling of scalar fields to gravity has been claimed to violate energy conditions, leading to exotic phenomena such as traversable wormholes, even in classical theories. In this work we adopt the view that the non-minimal…
We discuss quantum inequalities for minimally coupled scalar fields in static spacetimes. These are inequalities which place limits on the magnitude and duration of negative energy densities. We derive a general expression for the quantum…
The weak energy condition is known to fail in general when applied to expectation values of the the energy momentum tensor in flat space quantum field theory. It is shown how the usual counter arguments against its validity are no longer…
Quantum fields are known to violate all the pointwise energy conditions of classical general relativity. We review the subject of quantum energy inequalities: lower bounds satisfied by weighted averages of the stress-energy tensor, which…
I show that in the Boulware vacuum (1) all standard (point-wise and averaged) energy conditions are violated throughout the exterior region---all the way from spatial infinity down to the event horizon, and (2) outside the event horizon the…
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…
Attention has been recently called upon the fact that the weak and null energy conditions and the second law of thermodynamics are violated in wormhole solutions of Einstein's theory with classical, nonminimally coupled, scalar fields as…
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…
We provide a new model of higher dimensional wormholes supported by phantom energy derived from a scalar field with negative kinetic term. We have shown that the Averaged Null Energy Condition (ANEC) violating phantom energy can be reduced…
Connections are uncovered between the averaged weak (AWEC) and averaged null (ANEC) energy conditions, and quantum inequality restrictions on negative energy for free massless scalar fields. In a two-dimensional compactified Minkowski…
The violation of the null energy condition (NEC) may play a crucial role in enabling a scalar field to climb over high potential barriers, potentially significant in the very early universe. We propose a single-field model where the…
A non-singular cosmological bounce in the Einstein frame can only take place if the Null Energy Condition (NEC) is violated. We explore situations where a single scalar field drives the NEC violation and derive the constraints imposed by…
It is well-known that gravitationally induced vacuum polarization often violates the point-wise energy conditions and sometimes violates the averaged energy conditions. In this paper I begin a systematic attack on the question of where and…
We show that the violation of the null energy condition by matter, required by traversable wormholes, can be removed in spacetimes with torsion. In addition, we show that this violation can also be removed in the conformal frame obtained by…
Recently, Larry Ford and Tom Roman have discovered that in a flat cylindrical space, although the stress-energy tensor itself fails to satisfy the averaged null energy condition (ANEC) along the (non-achronal) null geodesics, when the…
We study whether a violation of the null energy condition necessarily implies the presence of instabilities. We prove that this is the case in a large class of situations, including isotropic solids and fluids relevant for cosmology. On the…
Using Visser's semi-analytical model for the stress-energy tensor corresponding to the conformally coupled massless scalar field in the Unruh vacuum, we examine, by explicitly evaluating the relevant integrals over half-complete geodesics,…
Eternal inflation requires upward fluctuations of the energy in a Hubble volume, which appear to violate the energy conditions. In particular, a scalar field in an inflating spacetime should obey the averaged null energy condition, which…
We consider (four dimensional) gravity coupled to a scalar field with potential V(\phi). The potential satisfies the positive energy theorem for solutions that asymptotically tend to a negative local minimum. We show that for a large class…
In this paper we investigate the energy distribution of states of a linear scalar quantum field with arbitrary curvature coupling on a curved spacetime which fulfill some local thermality condition. We find that this condition implies a…