Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2021 / ii / Paper 4 / 37C / b / iii / Solution

For a null vector, the perfect fluid in general relativity tensor givesbecause $g_{\alpha \beta }{V}^{\alpha }{V}^{\beta }=0$. For phantom energy, $\rho +P=(1+w)\rho <0$. A nonzero $u_{\alpha }{V}^{\alpha }$ therefore makes the contraction negative, so phantom energy violates the null energy condition.