Static Negative Energies Near a Domain Wall

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that a domain wall coupled with a scalar field can produce static negative energy densities, violating energy conditions in a fully renormalized quantum field theory setting.

Contribution

It provides the first explicit example of negative energy densities near a domain wall within a self-consistent quantum field theory framework.

Findings

Negative energy density observed at certain distances from the domain wall.

Violates the averaged weak energy condition and quantum inequalities.

Calculation is performed in a fully renormalized quantum field theory setting.

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.