diff --git a/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/util/hnsw/HnswGraphSearcher.java b/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/util/hnsw/HnswGraphSearcher.java
index 7d818bfb968f..4857d5b9d577 100644
--- a/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/util/hnsw/HnswGraphSearcher.java
+++ b/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/util/hnsw/HnswGraphSearcher.java
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ public static NeighborQueue search(
 
     int initialEp = graph.entryNode();
     if (initialEp == -1) {
-      return NeighborQueue.EMPTY_MAX_HEAP_NEIGHBOR_QUEUE;
+      return new NeighborQueue(1, true);
     }
     int[] eps = new int[] {initialEp};
     int numVisited = 0;
diff --git a/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/util/hnsw/NeighborQueue.java b/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/util/hnsw/NeighborQueue.java
index 6308f4226f5a..bcc43435872b 100644
--- a/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/util/hnsw/NeighborQueue.java
+++ b/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/util/hnsw/NeighborQueue.java
@@ -56,8 +56,6 @@ long apply(long v) {
   // Whether the search stopped early because it reached the visited nodes limit
   private boolean incomplete;
 
-  public static final NeighborQueue EMPTY_MAX_HEAP_NEIGHBOR_QUEUE = new NeighborQueue(1, true);
-
   public NeighborQueue(int initialSize, boolean maxHeap) {
     this.heap = new LongHeap(initialSize);
     this.order = maxHeap ? Order.MAX_HEAP : Order.MIN_HEAP;