{"paper":{"title":"Averaged Null Energy Condition from Causality","license":"http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/","headline":"","cross_cats":["gr-qc","hep-ph"],"primary_cat":"hep-th","authors_text":"Amirhossein Tajdini, Sandipan Kundu, Thomas Hartman","submitted_at":"2016-10-17T20:00:02Z","abstract_excerpt":"Unitary, Lorentz-invariant quantum field theories in flat spacetime obey microcausality: commutators vanish at spacelike separation. For interacting theories in more than two dimensions, we show that this implies that the averaged null energy, $\\int du T_{uu}$, must be positive. This non-local operator appears in the operator product expansion of local operators in the lightcone limit, and therefore contributes to $n$-point functions. We derive a sum rule that isolates this contribution and is manifestly positive. The argument also applies to certain higher spin operators other than the stress"},"claims":{"count":0,"items":[],"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"source":{"id":"1610.05308","kind":"arxiv","version":1},"verdict":{"id":null,"model_set":{},"created_at":null,"strongest_claim":"","one_line_summary":"","pipeline_version":null,"weakest_assumption":"","pith_extraction_headline":""},"references":{"count":0,"sample":[],"resolved_work":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}