Vacuum energy is non-positive for (2+1)-dimensional holographic CFTs

DOI10.1088/0264-9381/33/4/045009zbMATH Open1338.83133arXiv1508.04460OpenAlexW3101637507MaRDI QIDQ2807416FDOQ2807416

Authors: Andrew Hickling, Toby Wiseman 

Publication date: 20 May 2016

Published in: Classical and Quantum Gravity (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: We consider a (2+1)-dimensional holographic CFT on a static spacetime with globally timelike Killing vector. Taking the spatial geometry to be closed but otherwise general we expect a non-trivial vacuum energy at zero temperature due to the Casimir effect. We assume a thermal state has an AdS/CFT dual description as a static smooth solution to gravity with a negative cosmological constant, which ends only on the conformal boundary or horizons. A bulk geometric argument then provides an upper bound on the ratio of CFT free energy to temperature. Considering the zero temperature limit of this bound implies the vacuum energy of the CFT is non-positive. Furthermore the vacuum energy must be negative unless the boundary metric is locally conformal to a product of time with a constant curvature space. We emphasise the argument does not require the zero temperature bulk geometry to be smooth, but only that singularities are `good' so are hidden by horizons at finite temperature.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1508.04460

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zbMATH Keywords

black holesgeneral relativityvacuum energyAdS-CFTCFT

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Quantum field theory on curved space or space-time backgrounds (81T20) Two-dimensional field theories, conformal field theories, etc. in quantum mechanics (81T40) Methods of quantum field theory in general relativity and gravitational theory (83C47) Black holes (83C57) Analogues of general relativity in lower dimensions (83C80)

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• The averaged null energy conditions in even dimensional curved spacetimes from AdS/CFT duality
• Casimir energy and modularity in higher-dimensional conformal field theories
• Creating a traversable wormhole
• Positive vacuum energy and the \(N\)-bound
• Free energy dependence on spatial geometry for (2  +  1)-dimensional QFTs
• A surprising similarity between holographic CFTs and a free fermion in (2 + 1) dimensions
• Does the round sphere maximize the free energy of (2+1)-dimensional QFTs?
• On universality of holographic results for (2 + 1)-dimensional CFTs on curved spacetimes
• A new energy upper bound for AdS black holes inspired by free field theory
• Conformally invariant averaged null energy condition from AdS/CFT

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