Averaged null energy condition violation in a conformally flat spacetime

Abstract

We show that the averaged null energy condition can be violated by a conformally coupled scalar field in a conformally flat spacetime in 3+1 dimensions. The violation is dependent on the quantum state and can be made as large as desired. It does not arise from the presence of anomalies, although anomalous violations are also possible. Since all geodesics in conformally flat spacetimes are achronal, the achronal averaged null energy condition is likewise violated.

11 pages

References in corpus (6)

• Achronal averaged null energy condition
• Null energy conditions in quantum field theory
• Quantum Energy Inequalities for the Non-Minimally Coupled Scalar Field
• Averaged null energy condition in spacetimes with boundaries
• Quantum inequalities in two dimensional curved spacetimes
• Averaged Energy Inequalities for the Non-Minimally Coupled Classical Scalar Field

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• Spacetime Instability and Quantum Gravity as Low Energy Effective Field Theory
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