Negative Energy in Superposition and Entangled States

L. H. Ford, Thomas A. Roman

Published 2007-05-21Version 1

We examine the maximum negative energy density which can be attained in various quantum states of a massless scalar field. We consider states in which either one or two modes are excited, and show that the energy density can be given in terms of a small number of parameters. We calculate these parameters for several examples of superposition states for one mode, and entangled states for two modes, and find the maximum magnitude of the negative energy density in these states. We consider several states which have been, or potentially will be, generated in quantum optics experiments.