Gravitational positive energy theorems from information inequalities

Abstract

In this paper we argue that classical asymptotically anti-de Sitter spacetimes that arise as states in consistent ultraviolet completions of Einstein gravity coupled to matter must satisfy an infinite family of positive energy conditions. To each ball-shaped spatial region B of the boundary spacetime we can associate a bulk spatial region B between B and the bulk extremal surface B with the same boundary as B. We show that there exists a natural notion of a gravitational energy for every such region that is non-negative, and non-increasing as one makes the region smaller. The results follow from identifying this gravitational energy with a quantum relative entropy in the associated dual conformal field theory state. The positivity and monotonicity properties of the gravitational energy are implied by the positivity and monotonicity of relative entropy, which holds universally in all quantum systems.