Tunnelling and dynamical violation of the Null Energy Condition

Abstract

The Null Energy Condition is considered the most fundamental of the energy conditions, on which several key results, such as the singularity theorems, are based. The Casimir effect is one of the rare equilibrium mechanisms by which it is breached without invoking modified gravity or non-minimal couplings to exotic matter. In this work we propose an independent dynamical mechanism by which it is violated, with the only ingredients being standard (but non-perturbative) QFT and a minimally coupled scalar field in a double-well potential. As for the Casimir effect, we explain why the Averaged Null Energy Condition should not be violated by this mechanism. Nevertheless, the transient behaviour could have profound impacts in Early Universe Cosmology.

arXiv comment7 pages, 1 figure

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• Cosmographic analysis of a closed bouncing universe with the varying cosmological constant in $f(R,T)$ gravity
• Eternal Universes
• Instability of bubble expansion at zero temperature
• Cosmic bounce and phantom-like equation of state from tunnelling
• Null energy condition violation: Tunnelling versus the Casimir effect
• One-loop tunnelling-induced energetics
• Some cosmological features of 4D Gauss-Bonnet gravity with varying cosmological constant
• A non-singular closed bouncing universe without violation of null energy condition