1998/12/31 by Christopher J. Fewster, Edward Teo · 1 citation
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Energy condition #Function (biology) #General relativity #Geometry #Mathematical physics #Mathematics #Negative energy #Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories #Physics #Quantum #Quantum mechanics #Sampling (signal processing) #Scalar (mathematics) #Scalar field #Statistical physics #Theoretical physics #Universe #Vacuum energy #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.59.104016
published as Phys. Rev. D 59, 104016 (1999) · 22 pages, 5 figures; LaTeX; minor changes made
arxiv created 1999/02/16 · openalex publication_date 1999/04/23 · arxiv updated 2016/08/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Certain exotic phenomena in general relativity, such as backward time travel, appear to require the presence of matter with negative energy. While quantum fields are a possible source of negative energy densities, there are lower bounds---known as quantum inequalities---that constrain their duration and magnitude. In this paper, we derive new quantum inequalities for scalar fields in static space-times, as measured by static observers with a choice of sampling function. Unlike those previously derived by Pfenning and Ford, our results do not assume any specific sampling function. We then calculate these bounds in static three- and four-dimensional Robertson-Walker universes, the de Sitter universe, and the Schwarzschild black hole. In each case, the new inequality is stronger than that of Pfenning and Ford for their particular choice of sampling function.