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Related papers: The zero-point energy of elementary quantum fields

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The time energy uncertainty relation has been a controversial issue since the advent of quantum theory, with respect to appropriate formalisation, validity and possible meanings. A comprehensive account of the development of this subject up…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2022-09-21 P. Busch

We study the question of conditions for the existence of negative-energy states of particles in the absence of external fields in inertial and noninertial frames of reference. We show that in the nonrelativistic case in noninertial…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2023-10-17 A. A. Grib , Yu. V. Pavlov

The theory of point-particles in classical electrodynamics has a well-known problem of infinite self-energy, and the same is true of quantum electrodynamics. Instead of concluding that there is no such thing as a true point-particle, it is…

Classical Physics · Physics 2026-03-19 Andrew T. Hyman

"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…

General Physics · Physics 2016-05-27 Shou-Liang Bu

The concept of energy lies at the foundation of physical science. In general relativity and quantum field theory, the positivity and conservation of energy are encapsulated by the so-called energy-momentum tensor and the energy conditions.…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2025-12-02 Norihiro Iizuka , Akihiro Ishibashi , Kengo Maeda , Haruki Nakayama , Tatsuma Nishioka

Some 65 years ago (1951) Wolfgang Pauli noted that the net zero-point energy density could be set to zero by a carefully fine-tuned cancellation between bosons and fermions. In the current article I will argue in a slightly different…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2018-05-25 Matt Visser

The notion of an infinite electromagnetic self energy of point charges (presumably electrons) is accepted by many electromagnetic textbooks. See, for instance,\cite{jdj,dg,rf}. However, each of these sources acknowledge that they don't…

Classical Physics · Physics 2026-04-30 Jerrold Franklin

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…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2009-10-30 J. I. Latorre , H. Osborn

We analyze the divergent zero-point energy of a dilute and ultracold gas of atoms in D spatial dimensions. For bosonic atoms we explicitly show how to regularize this divergent contribution, which appears in the Gaussian fluctuations of the…

Quantum Gases · Physics 2016-07-19 L. Salasnich , F. Toigo

According to the entropy bound, the entropy of a complete physical system can be universally bounded in terms of its circumscribing radius and total gravitating energy. Page's three recent candidates for counterexamples to the bound are…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2007-05-23 Jacob D. Bekenstein

We discuss how we remove a huge discrepancy between the theory of a cosmological constant, due to the zero-point energies of matter fields, and the observation. The technique of dimensional regularization plays a decisive role. We…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2014-03-18 Yasunori Fujii

In this survey, we review some of the low energy quantum predictions of General Relativity which are independent of details of the yet unknown high-energy completion of the gravitational interaction. Such predictions can be extracted using…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2015-09-30 John F. Donoghue , Barry R. Holstein

We show that quantum fluctuations of electromagnetic fields induce an additional zero-point energy in solids, which scales with the volume. For insulators, the zero-point energy density is proportional to quantum fluctuation of electric…

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics · Physics 2026-02-10 Yugo Onishi , Liang Fu

In quantum field theory there is now a well developed technique, effective field theory, which allows one to obtain low energy quantum predictions in ``non-renormalizable'' theories, using only the degrees of freedom and interactions…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2007-05-23 John F. Donoghue

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.

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2008-02-03 Chung-I Kuo

The aim of this chapter is to present an introduction and also an overview of some of the most relevant results concerning positivity energy theorems in General Relativity. These theorems provide the answer to a long standing problem that…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2015-06-15 Sergio Dain

We consider elementary particles in a quantum theory based on a Galois field. In this approach infinities cannot exist, the cosmological constant problem does not arise and one irreducible representation of the symmetry algebra necessarily…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2008-10-27 Felix Lev

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…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2012-12-18 H. Razmi , A. H. Abbassi

We reanalyze from a modern perspective the bold idea of G. Helm, W. Ostwald, P. Duhem and others that energy is the fundamental entity composing the physical world. We start from a broad perspective reminding the search for a fundamental…

History and Philosophy of Physics · Physics 2025-06-17 J. E. Horvath , B. B. Martins

The Dark Energy problem is forcing us to re-examine our models and our understanding of relativity and space-time. The Standard Model of particle physics and its extensions are already in crisis. Having failed so far to include gravity in a…

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology · Physics 2009-02-19 S. Afsar Abbas