Achronal ANEC, Weak Cosmic Censorship, and AdS/CFT duality

Abstract

We examine the achronal averaged null energy condition~(ANEC) for a class of conformal field theories~(CFT) at strong coupling in curved spacetime. By applying the AdS/CFT duality, we find holographic models which violate the achronal ANEC for $3+1$ and $4+1$-dimensional boundary theories. In our model, the bulk spacetime is an asymptotically AdS vacuum bubble solution with neither causality violation nor singularities. The conformal boundary of our bubble solution is asymptotically flat and is causally proper in the sense that a "fastest null geodesics" connecting any two points on the boundary must lie entirely on the boundary. We show that conversely, if the spacetime fails to have this causally proper nature, then there must be a naked singularity in the bulk.