We analyze the expectation value of the energy-momentum tensor and its fluctuations in quantum field theory on curved spacetimes. A generally accepeted condition for the conceptual consistency of semiclassical gravity is that the fluctuations of the energy momentum tensor remain small compared to its expectation value. We study the renormalization of both the energy-momentum tensor $⟨T_{ab}(x){⟩}_{\mathrm{ren}}$ and the fluctuation tensor $⟨T_{ab}(x)T_{cd}(x){⟩}_{\mathrm{ren}}$ for suitably well behaved states, using the operator product expansion for a free scalar field on a fixed curved background. We show that states (usually referred to as “squeezed vacua”)—arising naturally in black hole evaporation and in inflationary cosmology—fail to satisfy the natural semiclassicality criterion.

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• Quantum aspects of black holes
• Quantum field theory
• Quantum gravity