Related papers: Detection of negative energy: 4-dimensional exampl…
Building on the "quantum inequalities" introduced by Ford, I argue that the negative local energies encountered in quantum field theory can only be observed by detectors with positive energies at least as great in magnitude. This means that…
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…
We analyze a quantum version of the weak equivalence principle, in which we compare the response of a static particle detector crossed by an accelerated cavity with the response of an accelerated detector crossing a static cavity in…
Energy densities of the quantum states that are superposition of two multi-electron-positron states are examined. It is shown that the energy densities can be negative only when two multi-particle states have the same number of electrons…
The sampled negative energy density seen by inertial observers, in arbitrary quantum states is limited by quantum inequalities, which take the form of an inverse relation between the magnitude and duration of the negative energy. The…
We study the phenomenon of negative energy densities in quantum field theories with self-interaction. Specifically, we consider a class of integrable models (including the sinh-Gordon model) in which we investigate the expectation value of…
"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…
There has been much recent work on quantum inequalities to constrain negative energy. These are uncertainty principle-type restrictions on the magnitude and duration of negative energy densities or fluxes. We consider several examples of…
It is well known that quantum effects can produce negative energy densities, though for limited times. Here we show in the context of two-dimensional CFT that such negative energy densities are present in any non-trivial conformal vacuum…
By a detector, one has in mind a point particle with internal energy levels, which when set in motion on a generic trajectory can get excited due to its interaction with a quantum field. Detectors have often been considered as a helpful…
Cosmology enters precision testing period with the observational experiments advancement. We have not arrived to decipher the origin of the dominant dark energy component of our universe, although we have located some of its characters. In…
In this paper we consider the question of the degree to which negative and positive energy are intertwined. We examine in more detail a previously studied quantum state of the massless minimally coupled scalar field, which we call a…
We derive conditions for rotating particle detectors to respond in a variety of bounded spacetimes and compare the results with the folklore that particle detectors do not respond in the vacuum state appropriate to their motion.…
Certain exotic phenomena in general relativity, such as backward time travel, appear to require the presence of matter with negative energy. While quantum fields are a possible source of negative energy densities, there are lower bounds -…
It is shown that quantum particle detectors are not reliable probes of spacetime structure. In particular, they fail to distinguish between inertial and non-inertial motion in a general spacetime. To prove this, we consider detectors…
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…
An analysis of errors in measurement yields new insight into classically forbidden quantum processes. In addition to "physical" values, a realistic measurement can yield "unphysical" values; we show that in {\it sequences} of measurements,…
Using a holographic model, we study quantum field theories with a layer of one CFT surrounded by another CFT, on either a periodic or an infinite direction. We study the vacuum energy density in each CFT as a function of the central…
We suppose that there are both particles with negative energies described by L_{W} and particles with positive energies described by L_{F}, L_{W} and L_{F} are independent of each other before quantization, dependent on each other after…
The phase velocity of light is co-parallel to the direction of energy flow in classical vacuum. However, in certain uncommon materials, these two vectors can be oppositely directed, in which case the phase velocity is termed `negative'.…