{
  "abstract": "We regularize the Aichelburg-Sexl shock-wave geometry for massless particles by smearing the point-like source over a string-inspired length scale $l_0$. A radial extension of the transverse geometry admits a zero-throat Einstein-Rosen interpretation. For a photon wave packet of longitudinal extent $L$, the regularized gravitational self-energy of a transversely separated pair is $E_{\\rm GSE}\\sim \\frac{4G(\\hbarω)^2}{c^4L} \\ln\\!\\left(\\frac{d^2}{l_0^2}\\right)$, where $d$ is the transverse separation. The factor $1/L$ strongly suppresses the interaction, giving gravitational stability times greater than $10^{30}$ years for optical photons. We also examine an effective two-dimensional entanglement-entropy description of the shock-wave geometry. The entropy construction reproduces the same dependence on the scales $d$, $L$, and $l_0$, and can be calibrated to reproduce the normalization of the direct self-energy calculation. However, we find that the gravitationally induced excess entropy, and hence the self-energy inferred from this prescription, is the same for Bell-entangled and unentangled photon pairs having identical energy-momentum distributions. This agrees with the direct geometrical calculation, since the classical two-shock metric depends on the stress-energy tensor but not on the polarization entanglement. The present construction should therefore be understood as a semiclassical ER-like geometry motivated by ER=EPR, rather than as a complete realization of the conjecture. A geometry whose connectivity tracks the amount of quantum entanglement would require a quantum-gravitational description sensitive to state-dependent correlations beyond the one-point stress-energy tensor.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": "Journal reference: Phys. Lett. B 881 (2026) 140886",
  "arxiv": "2606.02943",
  "author_total": 3,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Kimet Jusufi"
    },
    {
      "name": "Francisco S. N. Lobo"
    },
    {
      "name": "Douglas Singleton"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/2sgbe1sekhs56.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2606.02943",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "2sgbe1sekhs56",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.02943",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "LicenseRef-arXiv-nonexclusive-1.0",
  "licence_label": "arXiv licence",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "gr-qc"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "hep-th"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "quant-ph"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": null,
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2606.02943",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-01",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/2sgbe1sekhs56.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:18:16Z",
      "native_id": "2606.02943",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.02943"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:gr-qc",
      "subfield": "gravitation"
    },
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:hep-th",
      "subfield": "high-energy"
    },
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:quant-ph",
      "subfield": "quantum"
    }
  ],
  "title": "A regularized photon-pair geometry motivated by the ER=EPR conjecture",
  "title_text": "A regularized photon-pair geometry motivated by the ER=EPR conjecture",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:18:16Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/2sgbe1sekhs56",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": [
    {
      "doi": "10.1016/j.physletb.2026.140886",
      "pid": null,
      "relation": "published-as",
      "title": null,
      "venue": null
    }
  ]
}