Curiel, Erik (2014) A Primer on Energy Conditions. [Preprint]

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Abstract

An energy condition, in the context of a wide class of spacetime
theories (including general relativity), is, crudely speaking, a
relation one demands the stress-energy tensor of matter satisfy in
order to try to capture the idea that "energy should be positive".
The remarkable fact I will discuss in this paper is that such
simple, general, almost trivial seeming propositions have profound
and far-reaching import for our understanding of the structure of
relativistic spacetimes. It is therefore especially surprising when
one also learns that we have no clear understanding of the nature of
these conditions, what theoretical status they have with respect to
fundamental physics, what epistemic status they may have, when we
should and should not expect them to be satisfied, and even in many
cases how they and their consequences should be interpreted
physically. Or so I shall argue, by a detailed analysis of the
technical and conceptual character of all the standard conditions
used in physics today, including examination of their consequences
and the circumstances in which they are believed to be violated.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Curiel, Erik erik@strangebeautiful.com
Keywords:	general relativity spacetime theories energy conditions singularities black holes
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Physics > Cosmology Specific Sciences > Physics > Fields and Particles General Issues > Laws of Nature Specific Sciences > Physics Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory General Issues > Structure of Theories
Depositing User:	Dr. Erik Curiel
Date Deposited:	02 May 2014 06:00
Last Modified:	02 May 2014 06:00
Item ID:	10644
Official URL:	http://strangebeautiful.com/phil-phys.html
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Physics > Cosmology Specific Sciences > Physics > Fields and Particles General Issues > Laws of Nature Specific Sciences > Physics Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory General Issues > Structure of Theories
Date:	30 April 2014
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/10644

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