Perturbative superluminal censorship and the null energy condition
Jun, 1999
6 pages
Part of General relativity and relativistic astrophysics. Proceedings: 8th Canadian Conference, Montreal, Canada, Jun 10-12, 1999, 301-305
Published in:
- AIP Conf.Proc. 493 (1999) 1, 301-305
Contribution to:
- Published: Nov 19, 1999
e-Print:
- gr-qc/9908023 [gr-qc]
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Abstract: (AIP)
We argue that “effective” superluminal travel, potentially caused by the tipping over of light cones in Einstein gravity, is always associated with violations of the null energy condition (NEC). This is most easily seen by working perturbatively around Minkowski spacetime, where we use linearized Einstein gravity to show that the NEC forces the light cones to contract (narrow). Given the NEC, the Shapiro time delay in any weak gravitational field is always a delay relative to the Minkowski background, and never an advance. Furthermore, any object travelling within the lightcones of the weak gravitational field is similarly delayed with respect to the minimum traversal time possible in the background Minkowski geometry.Note:
- 5 pages. Uses AIP proceedings style (aipproc.sty). To appear in the Proceedings of the Eighth Canadian Conference on General Relativity and Relativistic Astrophysics. (McGill University, Montreal, June 1999). To be published by AIP Press
- general relativity
- space-time configurations
- special relativity
- causality
- perturbation theory
- gravitational experiments
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