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Singularities and Scalar Fields: Matter Theory and General Relativity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

James Mattingly
James Mattingly*
Affiliation:
Indiana University
*
†Send requests for reprints to the author, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, 130 Goodbody Hall, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405; email: jmattin@indiana.edu.
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Abstract

Philosophers of physics should be more attentive to the role energy conditions play in General Relativity. I review the changing status of energy conditions for quantum fields—presently there are no singularity theorems for semiclassical General Relativity. So we must reevaluate how we understand the relationship between General Relativity, Quantum Field Theory, and singularities. Moreover, on our present understanding of what it is to be a physically reasonable field, the standard energy conditions are violated classically. Thus the singularity theorems are unavailable for classical General Relativity. Our understanding of singularities in General Relativity turns on delicate issues of what it is to be a matter field—issues distinct from the content of the theory.

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