Year: 1998
Type: article
Abstract: We generalize results of Ford and Roman which place lower bounds---known as quantum inequalities---on the renormalized energy density of a quantum field averaged against a choice of sampling function. Ford and Roman derived their results for a specific non-compactly supported sampling function; here we use a different argument to obtain quantum inequalities for a class of smooth, even and non-negative sampling functions which are either compactly supported or decay rapidly at infinity. Our results hold in $d$-dimensional Minkowski space $(d>~2)$ for the free real scalar field of mass $m>~0.$ We discuss various features of our bounds in 2 and 4 dimensions. In particular, for massless field theory in two-dimensional Minkowski space, we show that our quantum inequality is weaker than Flanagan's optimal bound by a factor of $\frac{3}{2}.$
Authors: C. J. Fewster, S. P. Eveson
Institution: University of York
Language: English
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2023104606