A synthetic null energy condition

Abstract

We give a simplified approach to Kunzinger & Saemann's theory of Lorentzian length spaces in the globally hyperbolic case; these provide a nonsmooth framework for general relativity. We close a gap in the regularly localizable setting, by showing consistency of two potentially different notions of timelike geodesic segments used in the literature. In the smooth psuedo-Riemannian setting, we show Penrose' null energy condition is equivalent to a variable lower bound on the timelike Ricci curvature. This allows us to give a nonsmooth reformulation of the null energy condition using the timelike curvature-dimension conditions of Cavalletti \& Mondino (and Braun). Although this definition is consistent with the smooth setting, it proves unstable relative to the notion of pointed measured convergence for which timelike curvature-dimensions conditions are known to be stable. We illustrate this instability using a sequence of smooth weighted Lorentzian manifolds-with-boundary that satisfy it, yet converge to a disconnected pair of timelike related points that violate it in the limit.