Related papers: Negative energy density for a Dirac-Maxwell field
We present a general procedure for calculating one-loop ``Casimir'' energy densities for a scalar field coupled to a fixed potential in renormalized quantum field theory. We implement direct subtraction of counterterms computed precisely in…
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…
It is generally assumed that the vacuum state is the quantum state with the lowest energy. However, it has been shown that this is not the case for a Dirac-Maxwell field in the temporal gauge. In this paper we will present another proof,…
This paper initiates a program which seeks to study the allowed spatial distributions of negative energy density in quantum field theory. Here we deal with free fields in Minkowski spacetime. Known restrictions on time integrals of the…
Although negative energy densities are predicted by relativistic quantum field theories, I present an argument that an "operational" positivity still holds: the energy in a region, plus the energy of an isolated device which traps or…
In the semiclassical quantum gravity derived from the Wheeler-DeWitt equation, the energy density of a matter field loses quantum coherence due to the induced gauge potential from the parametric interaction with gravity in a non-static…
In a previous paper, a bound on the negative energy density seen by an arbitrary inertial observer was derived for the free massless, quantized scalar field in four-dimensional Minkowski spacetime. This constraint has the form of an…
The issue of the vacuum energy of quantum fields is briefly reviewed. It is argued that this energy is normally either much too large or much too small to account for the dark energy, However, there are a few proposals in which it would be…
In strongly interacting electron systems with low density and at low temperature the thermodynamic density of states is negative. It creates difficulties with understanding of the Einstein relation between conductivity and diffusion…
A novel method for deriving energy conditions in stable field theories is described. In a local classical theory with one spatial dimension, a local energy condition always exists. For a relativistic field theory, one obtains the dominant…
One route towards understanding both fractional charges and chiral anomalies delves into Dirac's negative energy sea. Usually we think of Dirac's negative energy sea as an unphysical construct, invented to render quantum field theory…
In electrostatics, we can use either potential energy or field energy to ensure conservation of energy. In electrodynamics, the former option is unavailable. To ensure conservation of energy, we must attribute energy to the electromagnetic…
I show that a quantized Klein-Gordon field in Minkowski space obeys an `operational' weak energy condition: the energy of an isolated device constructed to measure or trap the energy in a region, plus the energy it measures or traps, cannot…
In quantum field theory, there exist states in which the expectation value of the energy density for a quantized field is negative. These negative energy densities lead to many problems. Although quantum field theory introduces negative…
In this paper we discuss local averages of the energy density for the non-minimally coupled scalar quantum field, extending a previous investigation of the classical field. By an explicit example, we show that such averages are unbounded…
Quantum states with negative energy densities have been long known to exist in quantum field theories. We explore the structure of such states for holographic theories using quantum information theory tools and show how certain negative…
After a brief review of the Maxwell-like approach to gravity we consider the issue of the negative energy of gravitational field which is a consequence of the field approach to the phenomenon of gravitation. Due to the existence of the…
There has been an enduring interest and controversy about whether or not one can define physically meaningful energy density and stress fields, $e(\bf{r})$ and $\sigma_{\alpha \beta}(\bf{r})$, since the two forms of the kinetic energy,…
Quantum mechanics does not provide any ready recipe for defining energy density in space, since the energy and coordinate do not commute. To find a well-motivated energy density, we start from a possibly fundamental, relativistic…
The interaction between the quantum vacuum and a weak gravitational field is calculated for the vacuum fields of quantum electrodynamics. The result shows that the vacuum state is modified by the gravitational field, giving rise to a…