Characterization of the null energy condition via displacement convexity of entropy

Abstract

We characterize the null energy condition for an $(n+1)$-dimensional Lorentzian manifold in terms of convexity of the relative $(n-1)$-Renyi entropy along displacement interpolations on null hypersurfaces. More generally, we also consider Lorentzian manifolds with a smooth weight function and introduce the Bakry-Emery $N$-null energy condition that we characterize in terms of null displacement convexity of the relative $N$-Renyi entropy. As application we then revisit Hawking's area monotonicity theorem for a black hole horizon and the Penrose singularity theorem from the viewpoint of this characterization and in the context of weighted Lorentzian manifolds.

21 pages, typos corrected, results for continuous weights, comments are welcome