Pith. Sign in

RECORD

Quantum interest for scalar fields in Minkowski spacetime

PaperPDF from arXiv

data files

Paper breakdownThe authors' claims, conditions and measurements, as JSON Signed receiptProof this review has not been altered
X Bluesky LinkedIn Reddit Hacker News
Frans Pretorius

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Submitted 15 Mar 1999

abstract compiled · 2026-09-23 · no language-model review

The authors' main claim We prove that the quantum interest conjecture holds for arbitrary fluxes of non-interacting scalar fields in 4D Minkowski spacetime, and discuss the consequences in attempting to violate the second law of thermodynamics using negative energy.

how it is stated · asserted 1.00 read the record →

Comment (0) Read on arXiv ↗
Cite ▾
arXiv IDgr-qc/9903055 (version 2)
Pith IDAJKOV3VP, Pith's permanent record of this paper and its review
CitationFrans Pretorius. "Quantum interest for scalar fields in Minkowski spacetime." arXiv:gr-qc/9903055 (1999). https://pith.science/paper/AJKOV3VP
Claim paper

The compiled record

The paper's own sentences, arranged. Each label is drawn from a closed vocabulary; the number beside it is the probability the classifier gave that label. Numbers in the tables are the authors', checked by code. No sentence in this record was written by a model.

Open the compiled record

Compiled by classifier-1.13-20260917 via OpenRouter, question bank abstract-p1-20260923, 2026-09-23: 1 request, 3,697 input tokens, $0.0002 reported.

What the abstract itself states, as probabilities: claims first 0.05 · states limitation 0.65 · human participants 0.01 · controlled comparison 0.02 · randomized assignment 0.01 · states quantitative result 0.14 · compares with prior results 0.20 · mentions code or data availability 0.02.

The abstract, sentence by sentence

arXiv listing abstract v2. Results and the main claim are underlined; .

The quantum interest conjecture of Ford and Roman states that any negative energy flux in a free quantum field must be preceded or followed by a positive flux of greater magnitude, and the surplus of positive energy grows the further the positive and negative fluxes are apart. In addition, the maximum possible separation between the positive and negative energy decreases the larger the amount of negative energy. We prove that the quantum interest conjecture holds for arbitrary fluxes of non-interacting scalar fields in 4D Minkowski spacetime, and discuss the consequences in attempting to violate the second law of thermodynamics using negative energy. We speculate that quantum interest may also hold for the Electromagnetic and Dirac fields, and might be applied to certain curved spacetimes.

background contribution method result interpretation main claim

What the classifier reports for each sentence. The number is the probability it gave the label.
#sentencerolethe authors' own workstates the main conclusionstrength
s0 The quantum interest conjecture of Ford and Roman states that any negative energy flux in a free quantum field must be preceded or followed by a positive flux of greater magnitude, and the surplus of positive energy grows the further the positive and negative fluxes are apart. background 1.00 0.04 0.09 asserted 0.75
s1 In addition, the maximum possible separation between the positive and negative energy decreases the larger the amount of negative energy. background 0.83 0.16 0.06 asserted 1.00
s2 We prove that the quantum interest conjecture holds for arbitrary fluxes of non-interacting scalar fields in 4D Minkowski spacetime, and discuss the consequences in attempting to violate the second law of thermodynamics using negative energy. result 0.51 0.96 0.96 asserted 1.00
s3 We speculate that quantum interest may also hold for the Electromagnetic and Dirac fields, and might be applied to certain curved spacetimes. future work 0.99 0.09 0.03 speculative 1.00

What kind of paper the classifier reports this is: theoretical result 1.00 · evidence from proof or derivation 1.00.

What was examined, and what was not

sources read
  • arXiv listing abstract v2
not examined
  • full text
  • figures and tables
  • references and citing sentences
  • relations to other papers
levels run
  • P abstract
not run
  • S sections
  • T body sentences
  • C citations
  • R cross-paper relations

Every quoted sentence on this record is the authors'. Every label is from Pith's closed vocabulary, with the probability shown beside it. Every number in the measurements table is the authors', checked by code. Record as JSON

The paper
Original abstract

The quantum interest conjecture of Ford and Roman states that any negative energy flux in a free quantum field must be preceded or followed by a positive flux of greater magnitude, and the surplus of positive energy grows the further the positive and negative fluxes are apart. In addition, the maximum possible separation between the positive and negative energy decreases the larger the amount of negative energy. We prove that the quantum interest conjecture holds for arbitrary fluxes of non-interacting scalar fields in 4D Minkowski spacetime, and discuss the consequences in attempting to violate the second law of thermodynamics using negative energy. We speculate that quantum interest may also hold for the Electromagnetic and Dirac fields, and might be applied to certain curved spacetimes.

Human review

How Pith checks papers → · Full audit of this paper →

References
How the literature uses it

1 arXiv paper cite this in 1 sentence

Each citing sentence is taken from the citing paper's LaTeX source and typed by Pith's classifier. A label appears at probability 0.8 or more (0.95 for support), a contest at 0.7 or more; the quoted words are the citing authors'. How each label was checked · JSON

Papers citing it

Compares with it 1 paper
  • A slightly earlier proof of some aspects of Ford and Roman's Quantum Interest Conjecture can be found in [ref] , but this is not as quantitative in nature as the bounds given here.

    Lectures on quantum energy inequalities · An example of a QEI and its consequences · 0.98

Discussion

Know something about this paper? Leave a comment, or highlight any passage above to comment on it.