Semiclassical energy conditions for quantum vacuum states

TL;DR

This paper introduces new nonlinear energy conditions tailored for semiclassical quantum regimes, demonstrating their robustness over classical conditions and broad applicability in quantum states.

Contribution

It develops and analyzes novel nonlinear energy conditions, including FEC, TOSEC, and DETEC, for better handling semiclassical quantum effects in energy assessments.

Findings

Nonlinear energy conditions outperform classical ones in semiclassical regimes.

Quantum extensions of nonlinear conditions are widely satisfied in quantum states.

Linear quantum energy conditions are less generally applicable.

Abstract

We present and develop several nonlinear energy conditions suitable for use in the semiclassical regime. In particular, we consider the recently formulated "flux energy condition" (FEC), and the novel "trace-of-square" (TOSEC) and "determinant" (DETEC) energy conditions. As we shall show, these nonlinear energy conditions behave much better than the classical linear energy conditions in the presence of semiclassical quantum effects. Moreover, whereas the quantum extensions of these nonlinear energy conditions seem to be quite widely satisfied as one enters the quantum realm, analogous quantum extensions are generally not useful for the linear classical energy conditions.