Quantum-Capped Cores as a Strong-Field Length Scale in Quantum Energy Inequality Constraints on Traversable Wormholes
Abstract
This preprint connects two ideas that are usually discussed separately: (1) the Quantum-Capped Cores (QCC) framework, which introduces a single strong-field regularization length inferred from compact-object phenomenology, and (2) modern quantum energy inequality results that limit how much negative null energy quantum fields can produce when averaged over finite regions. The central move is to use QCC’s strong-field length as a physically motivated choice for the “sampling” or “smearing” scale that appears in null-energy bounds. With that identification, the paper derives a conservative, scaling-based constraint: if the negative-energy support required for a smooth traversable wormhole throat comes from semiclassical quantum fields obeying these bounds, then macroscopic traversable wormholes become effectively impossible unless an unrealistically large number of light degrees of freedom is available. In other words, if QCC’s inferred length scale is macroscopic (for example, kilometers), then traversable wormhole geometries are strongly disfavored under standard semiclassical assumptions. The paper is intentionally completion-agnostic: it does not claim that wormholes are impossible in all theories. Instead, it cleanly separates what follows under widely used semiclassical assumptions from the specific loopholes one would need to exploit to evade the constraint (such as highly microstructured thin-shell constructions, long non-shortcut wormholes, or effective sectors that…
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