The Penrose Inequality as a Constraint on the Low Energy Limit of Quantum Gravity

Abstract

We construct initial data violating the Anti-deSitter Penrose inequality using scalars with various potentials. Since a version of the Penrose inequality can be derived from AdS/CFT, we argue that it is a new swampland condition, ruling out holographic UV completion for theories that violate it. We produce exclusion plots on scalar couplings violating the inequality, and we find no violations for potentials from string theory. In the special case where the dominant energy condition holds, we use GR techniques to prove the AdS Penrose inequality in all dimensions, assuming spherical, planar, or hyperbolic symmetry. However, our violations show that this result cannot be generically true with only the null energy condition, and we give an analytic sufficient condition for violation of the Penrose inequality, constraining couplings of scalar potentials. Like the Breitenlohner-Freedman bound, this gives a necessary condition for the stability of AdS.

8 pages, 3 figures. v3: published version, added clarifications. v4: added inconsequential missing term in eq. 7, 8. v5: fixed a sign error in the presentation of eq (16), the correct formula was used in numerics - no conclusions changed

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Cited by in corpus (5)

• Novel topological classes in black hole thermodynamics
• Constraining braneworlds with entanglement entropy
• ${\tilde{W}}^{1+}$ subclass: Extending the topological classification of black hole thermodynamics
• Hitchhiker's Guide to the Swampland: The Cosmologist's Handbook to the string-theoretical Swampland Programme
• The Penrose inequality in spherical symmetry with charge and in Gauss-Bonnet gravity