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Related papers: Proof of the Quantum Null Energy Condition

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We derive the classical null energy condition, understood as a constraint on the Ricci tensor, from the second law of thermodynamics applied locally to Bekenstein-Hawking entropy associated with patches of null congruences. The derivation…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2017-05-10 Maulik Parikh , Andrew Svesko

Energy conditions are crucial for understanding why exotic phenomena such as traversable wormholes and closed timelike curves remain elusive. In this paper, we prove the Double Smeared Null Energy Condition (DSNEC) for the fermionic free…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2025-07-03 Duarte Fragoso , Lihan Guo

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

Averaged Null Energy Conditions (ANECs) hold in unitary quantum field theories. In conformal field theories, ANECs in states created by the application of the stress tensor to the vacuum lead to three constraints on the stress-tensor…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2023-05-31 Kuo-Wei Huang , Robin Karlsson , Andrei Parnachev , Samuel Valach

Considerable interest has recently been expressed regarding the issue of whether or not quantum field theory on a fixed but curved background spacetime satisfies the averaged null energy condition (ANEC). A comment by Wald and Yurtsever…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2009-10-22 Matt Visser

Quantum fields can notoriously violate the null energy condition (NEC). In a cosmological context, NEC violation can lead to, e.g., dark energy at late times with an equation-of-state parameter smaller than $-1$ and nonsingular bounces at…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2025-07-01 Elly Moghtaderi , Brayden R. Hull , Jerome Quintin , Ghazal Geshnizjani

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 classic singularity theorems of General Relativity rely on energy conditions that can be violated in semiclassical gravity. Here, we provide motivation for an energy condition obeyed by semiclassical gravity: the smeared null energy…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2022-07-20 Ben Freivogel , Eleni-Alexandra Kontou , Dimitrios Krommydas

We propose a universal inequality that unifies the Bousso bound with the classical focussing theorem. Given a surface $\sigma$ that need not lie on a horizon, we define a finite generalized entropy $S_\text{gen}$ as the area of $\sigma$ in…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2016-07-06 Raphael Bousso , Zachary Fisher , Stefan Leichenauer , and Aron C. Wall

The restricted quantum focusing conjecture (rQFC) plays a central role in an axiomatic formulation of semiclassical gravity. Since much hinges on its validity, it is imperative to subject the rQFC to rigorous tests in novel settings. Here…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2025-10-28 Victor Franken , Sami Kaya , François Rondeau , Arvin Shahbazi-Moghaddam , Patrick Tran

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

We explore the idea that quantum vacuum energy $\rho_{\rm vac} $ is at the origin of Gravity. We formulate a gravitational version of the electromagnetic Casimir effect, and provide an argument for how gravity can arise from $\rho_{\rm vac}…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2026-01-01 André LeClair

In the context of Einstein gravity, if the null energy condition (NEC) is satisfied, the energy density in expanding space-times always decreases while in contracting space-times the energy density grows and the universe eventually…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2016-07-04 Anna Ijjas , Justin Ripley , Paul J. Steinhardt

We study the consequences of Entanglement Wedge Nesting for CFTs with holographic duals. The CFT is formulated on an arbitrary curved background, and we include the effects of curvature-squared couplings in the bulk. In this setup we find…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2020-01-29 Chris Akers , Venkatesa Chandrasekaran , Stefan Leichenauer , Adam Levine , Arvin Shahbazi Moghaddam

The averaged null energy condition has known violations for quantum fields in curved space, even if one considers only achronal geodesics. Many such examples involve rapid variation in the stress-energy tensor in the vicinity of the…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2014-11-20 Douglas Urban , Ken D. Olum

We study violations of the Null Energy Condition (NEC) in Quantum Field Theory (QFT) and their implications. For the first part of the project, we examine these violations for classes of already known and novel (first discussed here) QFT…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2018-06-04 Dimitrios Krommydas

The classical singularity theorems of General Relativity rely on energy conditions that are easily violated by quantum fields. Here, we provide motivation for an energy condition obeyed in semiclassical gravity: the smeared null energy…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2021-10-25 Eleni-Alexandra Kontou , Ben Freivogel , Dimitrios Krommydas

We derive the null energy condition, understood as a constraint on the Einstein-frame Ricci tensor, from worldsheet string theory. For a closed bosonic string propagating in a curved geometry, the spacetime interpretation of the Virasoro…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2015-04-08 Maulik Parikh , Jan Pieter van der Schaar

We analyze four-dimensional Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker cosmologies in type IIB, arising from a M-theory dual, and find that the null energy condition (NEC) has to be obeyed by them (except for the negatively curved case) in order…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2021-11-02 Heliudson Bernardo , Suddhasattwa Brahma , Keshav Dasgupta , Mir Mehedi Faruk , Radu Tatar

The quantum null energy condition (QNEC) is a lower bound on the energy-momentum tensor in terms of the variation of the entanglement entropy of a sub-region along a null direction. To gain insights into quantum thermodynamics of many-body…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2022-05-11 Tanay Kibe , Ayan Mukhopadhyay , Pratik Roy