Contact: ecqft[AT]itp.uni-leipzig.deLocation: Leipzig, Germany
The Emmy Noether junior research group at the ITP Leipzig, led by Daniela Cadamuro, will host the conference “Energy conditions in QFT” in Leipzig on the 12-16 September 2022.
Positive energy conditions fulfilled by many matter fields in classical field theory are violated in quantum field theory (QFT), so the quantum energy density can have negative expectation values. This raises fundamental questions. For example, are the energy conditions that enter as an assumption of singularity theorems in general relativity (GR) compatible with quantum matter or do quantum fields allow the existence of “exotic” spacetimes?
If such scenarios are to be excluded, there must be constraints to the extent in which quantum fields can cause negative energy densities. Those constraints are known as quantum energy inequalities (QEI) or quantum energy conditions (QEC). These inequalities appear to be related to other interesting physical aspects of QFT, such as the notion of thermal equilibrium, as well as aspects of information theory, for example the relative entropy.
The conference is intended to cover topics such as quantum energy inequalities, entropy and thermal states in QFT, and more in general,the role of the Hamiltonian and of the stress-energy tensor in quantum physics.
If you intend to participate, please register via the online form at the workshop website. There are some slots for talks available, in particular for early career researchers.
We are looking forward to meeting you in Leipzig,
Daniela Cadamuro, Markus Froeb and Christoph Minz