Static Negative Energies Near a Domain Wall

Abstract

We show that a system of a domain wall coupled to a scalar field has static negative energy density at certain distances from the domain wall. This system provides a simple, explicit example of violation of the averaged weak energy condition and the quantum inequalities by interacting quantum fields. Unlike idealized systems with boundary conditions or external background fields, this calculation is implemented precisely in renormalized quantum field theory with the energy necessary to support the background field included self-consistently.

6 pages, 1 figure, uses RevTeX4; v2: added acknowledgements; v3: minor correction and clarifications

References in corpus (3)

• Measurement of the Casimir force between parallel metallic surfaces
• The Energy Density in the Casimir Effect
• No time machines in classical general relativity

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