Averaged null energy condition in spacetimes with boundaries
- Department of Mathematics, University of York, Heslington, York, YO10 5DD (United Kingdom)
The averaged null energy condition (ANEC) requires that the average along a complete null geodesic of the projection of the stress-energy tensor onto the geodesic tangent vector can never be negative. It is sufficient to rule out many exotic phenomena in general relativity. Subject to certain conditions, we show that the ANEC can never be violated by a quantized minimally coupled free scalar field along a complete null geodesic surrounded by a tubular neighborhood in which the geometry is flat and whose intrinsic causal structure coincides with that induced from the full spacetime. In particular, the ANEC holds in flat space with boundaries, as in the Casimir effect, for geodesics which stay a finite distance away from the boundary.
- OSTI ID:
- 21010920
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Vol. 75, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.75.025007; (c) 2007 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0556-2821
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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