Paper detail

Negative energy densities in integrable quantum field theories at one-particle level

We study the phenomenon of negative energy densities in quantum field theories with self-interaction. Specifically, we consider a class of integrable models (including the sinh-Gordon model) in which we investigate the expectation value of the energy density in one-particle states. In this situation, we classify the possible form of the stress-energy tensor from first principles. We show that one-particle states with negative energy density generically exist in non-free situations, and we establish lower bounds for the energy density (quantum energy inequalities). Demanding that these inequalities hold reduces the ambiguity in the stress-energy tensor, in some situations fixing it uniquely. Numerical results for the lowest spectral value of the energy density allow us to demonstrate how negative energy densities depend on the coupling constant and on other model parameters.