Quantized Fields and Chronology Protection

Abstract

Several recent possible counterexamples to the Chronology Protection Conjecture are critically examined. The ``adapted'' Rindler vacuum state constructed by Li and Gott for a conformal scalar field in Misner space is extended to nonconformally coupled and self-interacting scalar fields. For these fields, the vacuum stress-energy always diverges on the chronology horizons. The divergence of the vacuum stress-energy on Misner space chronology horizons cannot be generally avoided by choosing a Rindler-type vacuum state.