Related papers: The zero-point energy of elementary quantum fields
General Principle of Relativity unequivocally supports the notion of momentum-less energy for bodies (energy-quanta) moving at the {\em same} or {\em constant} speed relative to all the reference systems. In this communication, we point out…
Since its discovery, quantum theory has proven to be one of the most precise theories ever made. Measurement processes, however, do not seem to be governed by the unitary law of quantum mechanics, and one can ask if the theory is complete.…
We present a critical analysis of the classical approaches to energy subjects, based on the work-energy theorem and the conservation of mechanical energy proposed in the courses of the first years of tertiary education. We show how these…
Three observational tests of cosmological natural selection, a theory that follows from some hypotheses about quantum gravity, are described. If true, this theory explains the choices of the parameters of the standard model of particle…
The (zeroth-order) energy of a particle in the background of a black hole is given by Carter's integrals. However, exact calculations of a particle's {\it self-energy} (first-order corrections) are still beyond our present reach in many…
A recent proposal asserts that gravitational forces arise due to an interaction between matter and vacuum electromagnetic zero-point radiation. The present analysis demonstrates that forces induced on matter by zero-point radiation arise in…
Vacuum energy in quantum field theory, being the sum of zero-point energies of all field modes, is formally infinite but yet, after regularization or renormalization, can give rise to finite observable effects. One way of understanding how…
It is a well-known fact that there is no well-defined notion of conserved energy in gravity. In my opinion, it is not a big deal. As a conserved quantity, energy is a rather artificial invention which works perfectly well as long as we have…
I review some recent results showing that the physics of negative energy densities, as predicted by relativistic quantum field theories, is more complicated than has generally been appreciated. On the one hand, in external potentials where…
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…
Using an argument due to Regge and Teitelboim, an expression for the ADM mass of 2d quantum dilaton gravity is obtained. By evaluating this expression we establish that the quantum theories which can be written as a Liouville-like theory,…
The problem of unification of Gravitation and Electromagnetism in four dimensions; some new ideas involving mixtures of commuting and anti-commuting co-ordinates. Maxwell's equations are extracted in terms of the curvature of the…
We review several theoretical aspects of the Equivalence Principle (EP). We emphasize the unsatisfactory fact that the EP maintains the absolute character of the coupling constants of physics while General Relativity, and its…
Violation of the null energy condition plays an important role both in the general theory of relativity and quantum field theory in curved spacetimes. Over the years, it has been shown that the violation of the null energy condition leads…
In this paper it is shown that the forces which resist the acceleration of the mass of the electron, $m_e$, arising from the Compton effect, the Klein-Nishima-Kann formula for its differential cross section and the transversal Doppler…
We consider a scalar quantum field theory, in which the interaction takes the form of a field cutoff; the energy diverges to infinity whenever the value of the field at some point falls outside a finite interval. In a simple…
The cosmological constant problem is principally concerned with trying to understand how the zero-point energy of quantum fields contributes to gravity. Here we take the approach that by addressing a fundamental unresolved issue in quantum…
In this paper we prove a positive energy theorem related to fourth-order gravitational theories, which is a higher-order analogue of the classical ADM positive energy theorem of general relativity. We will also show that, in parallel to the…
Energy conservation has the status of a fundamental physical principle. However, measurements in quantum mechanics do not comply with energy conservation. Therefore, it is expected that a more fundamental theory of gravity -- one that is…
It has been argued that the correct, i.e. positive, sign of quantum vacuum energy density, or more properly, negative sign of quantum vacuum pressure, requires not a very large number, e.g. ~100, of additional, undiscovered fundamental…