Vacuum (quantum electrodynamic)
The term quantum electrodynamic vacuum, or QED, refers to the ground state of the electromagnetic field, which is subject to fluctuations about a dormant zero average-field condition.
Generally, the quantum vacuum contains no physical particles. The quantum vacuum, however, "is by no means a simple empty space where nothing ever happens",[1] "According to quantum mechanics, empty space (the "vacuum") is not truly empty but instead contains fleeting electromagnetic waves and particles that pop into and out of existence."[2] "It has become a popular point of view to consider the modern quantum vacuum as a medium ... [a] kind of 'modern ether' "[3]
Quantization of the fields
The Heisenberg uncertainty principle does not allow a particle to exist in a state in which the particle is simultaneously at a fixed location, say the origin of coordinates, and has also zero momentum. Instead the particle has a range of momentum and spread in location attributable to quantum fluctuations; if confined, it has a zero-point energy.[4]
An uncertainty principle applies to all quantum mechanical operators that do not commute.[5] In particular, it applies also to the electromagnetic field. A digression follows to flesh out the role of commutators for the electromagnetic field.[6]
| The standard approach to the quantization of the electromagnetic field begins by introducing a vector potential A and a scalar potential V to represent the basic electromagnetic electric field E and magnetic field B using the relations:[6]
The vector potential is not completely determined by these relations, leaving open a so-called gauge freedom. Resolving this ambiguity using the Coulomb gauge leads to a description of the electromagnetic fields in the absence of charges in terms of the vector potential and the momentum field Π, given by: where ε0 is the electric constant of the SI units. Quantization is achieved by insisting that the momentum field and the vector potential do not commute. |
Because of the non-commutation of field variables, the variances of the fields cannot be zero, although their averages are zero.[7] As a result, the quantum electrodynamic vacuum can be considered as a dielectric medium, and is capable of vacuum polarization.[8] In particular, the force law between charged particles is affected.[9] The electrical permittivity of quantum electrodynamic vacuum can be calculated, and it differs slightly from the simple ε0 of the classical vacuum. Likewise, its permeability can be calculated and differs slightly from μ0. This medium is a dielectric with relative dielectric constant > 1, and is diamagnetic, with relative magnetic permeability < 1.[10] Under some extreme circumstances (for example, in the very high fields found in the exterior regions of pulsars[11] ), the quantum electrodynamic vacuum is thought to exhibit nonlinearity in the fields.[12] Calculations also indicate birefringence and dichroism at high fields.[13]
Attainability
A perfect vacuum is itself only realizable in principle.[14][15] It is an idealization, like absolute zero for temperature, that can be approached, but never actually realized:[14]
“One reason [a vacuum is not empty] is that the walls of a vacuum chamber emit light in the form of black-body radiation...If this soup of photons is in thermodynamic equilibrium with the walls, it can be said to have a particular temperature, as well as a pressure. Another reason that perfect vacuum is impossible is the Heisenberg uncertainty principle which states that no particles can ever have an exact position ...Each atom exists as a probability function of space, which has a certain nonzero value everywhere in a given volume. ...More fundamentally, quantum mechanics predicts ...a correction to the energy called the zero-point energy [that] consists of energies of virtual particles that have a brief existence. This is called vacuum fluctuation.”
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References
- ↑ Astrid Lambrecht (Hartmut Figger, Dieter Meschede, Claus Zimmermann Eds.) (2002). Observing mechanical dissipation in the quantum vacuum: an experimental challenge; in Laser physics at the limits. Berlin/New York: Springer. ISBN 3540424180.
- ↑ AIP Physics News Update,1996
- ↑ Walter Dittrich & Holger Gies (2000). Probing the quantum vacuum: perturbative effective action approach in quantum electrodynamics and its application. Berlin: Springer, p. 1. ISBN 3540674284.
- ↑ Franz Schwabl (2007). “§ 3.1.3: The zero-point energy”, Quantum mechanics, 4rth ed.. Springer, p. 54. ISBN 3540719326.
- ↑ Peter Lambropoulos, David Petrosyan (2007). Fundamentals of quantum optics and quantum information. Springer, p. 30. ISBN 354034571X.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Werner Vogel, Dirk-Gunnar Welsch (2006). “Chapter 2: Elements of quantum electrodynamics”, Quantum optics, 3rd ed.. Wiley-VCH, pp. 18 ff. ISBN 3527405070.
- ↑ Gilbert Grynberg, Alain Aspect, Claude Fabre (2010). Introduction to Quantum Optics: From the Semi-classical Approach to Quantized Light. Cambridge University Press, pp. 351 ff. ISBN 0521551129.
- ↑ Kurt Gottfried, Victor Frederick Weisskopf (1986). Concepts of particle physics, Volume 2. Oxford University Press, 259 ff. ISBN 0195033930.
- ↑ Michael Edward Peskin, Daniel V. Schroeder (1995). “§7.5 Renormalization of the electric charge”, An introduction to quantum field theory. Westview Press, pp. 244 ff. ISBN 0201503972.
- ↑ John F. Donoghue, Eugene Golowich, Barry R. Holstein (1994). Dynamics of the standard model, p. 47. ISBN 0521476526.
- ↑ Peter Mészáros (1992). “§2.6 (b) Wave propagation in the QED vacuum”, High-energy radiation from magnetized neutron stars. University of Chicago Press, pp. 59 ff. ISBN 0226520943.
- ↑ Frederic V. Hartemann (2002). High-field electrodynamics. CRC Press, p.428. ISBN 0849323789.
- ↑ Jeremy S. Heyl, Lars Hernquist (1997). "Birefringence and Dichroism of the QED Vacuum". J Phys A30: 6485-6492. DOI:10.1088/0305-4470/30/18/022. Research Blogging.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Luciano Boi (2009). “Creating the physical world ex nihilo? On the quantum vacuum and its fluctuations”, Ernesto Carafoli, Gian Antonio Danieli, Giuseppe O. Longo, editors: The Two Cultures: Shared Problems. Springer, p. 55. ISBN 8847008689.
- ↑ PAM Dirac (2001). Jong-Ping Hsu, Yuanzhong Zhang, editors: Lorentz and Poincaré invariance: 100 years of relativity. World Scientific, p. 440. ISBN 9810247214.