Bulk Matter and the Boundary Quantum Null Energy Condition

Abstract

We investigate the quantum null energy condition (QNEC) in holographic CFTs, focusing on half-spaces and particular classes of states. We present direct, and in certain cases nonperturbative, calculations for both the diagonal and off- diagonal variational derivatives of entanglement entropy. In d > 2, we find that the QNEC is saturated. We compute relations between the off-diagonal variation of entanglement, boundary relative entropy, and the bulk stress tensor. Strong subadditivity then leads to energy conditions in the bulk. In d = 2, we find that the QNEC is in general not saturated when the Ryu-Takayanagi surface intersects bulk matter. Moreover, when bulk matter is present the QNEC can imply new bulk energy conditions. For a simple class of states, we derive an example that is stronger than the bulk averaged null energy condition and reduces to it in certain limits.