The Smeared Null Energy Condition

Abstract

We propose a new bound on the average null energy along a finite portion of a null geodesic. We believe our bound is valid on scales small compared to the radius of curvature in any quantum field theory that is consistently coupled to gravity. If correct, our bound implies that regions of negative energy density are never strongly gravitating, and that isolated regions of negative energy are forbidden.

arXiv comment28 pages, 3 figures

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Cited by in corpus (10)

• Energy conditions in general relativity and quantum field theory
• A semiclassical singularity theorem
• The Return of the Singularities: Applications of the Smeared Null Energy Condition
• Upper and Lower Bounds on the Integrated Null Energy in Gravity
• Global aspects of conformal symmetry and the ANEC in dS and AdS
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• Wormhole restrictions from quantum energy inequalities
• The fermionic double smeared null energy condition
• Conformal Rigidity from Focusing
• Classification of quantum states based on the null energy condition