Space-time structure and quantum vacuum

Transcription

1 Space-time structure and quantum vacuum Mojtaba Mahmoudi Fard Department of Energy Engineering and Physics, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran Electronic address: Abstract It is thought that in accordance with the quantum uncertainty, energy could be extracted from the empty space. However, space nowadays could be considered as a material sui generis entity, a collection of indivisible small particles, and in a grainy fabric. So this paper asserts that the vacuum is not a concept other than the space-time itself related to its microscopic structure and the underlying ether. Keywords: quantum vacuum, ether, space-time. Introduction Here, the intention is not the applicable vacuum means to the region with a gaseous pressure much less than the atmospheric pressure (partial vacuum) or popularly emptiness (bare vacuum), rather the empty physical space that is devoid of matter particles (realizable quantum vacuum). According to nowadays hypotheses, the empty space has the quantum (vacuum) fluctuation where it can produce shortlived and transient virtual particle densities (QED vacuum) that hop into and out of 1

2 existence [1]. The quantum field theory (QFT), which in fact is a model for the vacuum as the vastly complex structure, quantizes the "fundamental" fields (e.g. electromagnetic, gravitational fields) in any point of space as simple harmonic oscillators. So the excitations of the underlying fields would be corresponding to the elementary particles and the vacuum state (vacuum expectation value, zeropoint energy) is considered as the ground state (lowest energy density) of a collection of quantum fields [2, 3]. According to this approach, the empty space, i.e. devoid of matter and radiation, is not empty; however, this implicitly suggests that "everything" is from the "nothingness"; because the vacuum energy is an underlying background energy that exists in space throughout the entire universe which it is a contribution of virtual particles meaning the hidden eternal energy reservoir of empty space/nothing. In a certain sense, these pairs can be expected to be a manifestation of the conjugate variables of time-energy uncertainty principle in everywhere [4]. Especially when the false vacuum caused by these quantum fluctuations (the temporary appearance of energetic particles out of empty space, by the uncertainty principle), is provided as a "free lunch" at the inflation scenario. Even though, this theory stimulates further interest in the delicate concept of vacuum energy density with cosmological effects, whereas it offers no clue to the solution of the vacuum catastrophe as a deep mysterious of physics [5, 6]. However, it is usually argued that such a field approach must be virtual construct (non physical) and their fluctuations reflect an unphysical idealization [7, 8], since an immediate and inescapable consequence of the QFT picture is appears as the cosmological constant problem which is intimately connected to the quantum vacuum concept (as a test of the relation between general relativity and QFT) [9]. Discussion It could be possible that we think, vacuum should not be a separate significance or something other than the space-time emergence due to an underlying ether; so the impression that energy to every arbitrary amount can be achieved of vacuum as the pair particles (without any discipline and communication with the Cosmos), is due to the super-implicate mechanisms of the world order. In reality, the uncertainty 2

3 principle which is the seditious agent in causing the vacuum fluctuation, free fields, virtual particles, contemporary violate of the energy conservation, nothingness and etc is originally associated with the atomic nature (discrete picture) of space-time. So all of the above courses and thus the zero-point energy ascribed to the quantized free fields, cosmological constant, dark energy and so on; may be implications far from the physical reality. The strictest criteria to define a vacuum (which there is no vacuum, but rather as the definition of space-time) is a region where is empty of any elementary particle and other physical fields, therefore no ordinary particle constitute from the indivisible particles of ether and in fact, space-time during a very short time interval is produced and disappeared. It seems that only the flowing of ether-fluid there exists with establishing of time-symmetry. So instead of saying that, space is filled with the quantized fields (which this method of having a quantum harmonic oscillator at each point is mathematically equivalent to computing the vacuum energy known as the virtual particles [3]) that makeup the universe, and vacuum is simply the lowest possible energy state of these fields. We must assert, space-time is filled with gas of indivisible particles that is the alchemy of creation of world. So, each energy state in the empty space is caused by the change of the energy of space-time s quanta (due to the accumulation of ether s particles); whereas at the QFT, these energy states attributes to the quantized free fields. Although the results of the calculation of QFT may be satisfied for example; the Casimir effect, while it has a high price to pay for solving the cosmological constant problem (dark energy density/zero-point energy of gravitational field) that leads to the stark discrepancy of the vacuum catastrophe [2]. So that, this puzzle has led famous physicists to deny the reality of the vacuum fluctuations [10] but word is that, the quantization hypothesis of fields is non-fundamental and/or the ZPE of free space is an unphysical nature. Since ħ is the energy of each background s quantum in an area, that it can be called as the zero-point energy/lowest quantum state of that area. So there is always an inevitable interaction among all of the quantum systems with this field/ radiation. What can cause effects such as; the shift of positions of atomic levels/ a split of energy levels in the hydrogen atom (Lamb shift [11]), the anomalous magnetic properties of the electron, also this interaction with the excited atoms is what leads to spontaneous emission, as well as the Casimir effect [12]. Therefore 3

4 for instance, what of the QED is called as the quantum EM vacuum where it is the background s electromagnetic field and produces virtual electron-positron pairs is obtained of the same of substrate energy of space-time by the fluid; that creates both the fields of that area and all of effects that are known under the QFT. In addition, since in QFT the fields are continuous quantities over space, the excited states of a system can represent to any number of particle pairs, providing it with an effectively infinite number of degrees of freedom, which can easily lead to the divergence of calculated quantities give rise to an infinite large energy per unit volume (contrary to the quantum mechanical -statistical- systems with a fixed number of particles, that each of them has a finite number of degrees of freedom). So, the technical remedies such as the renormalization an infinite subtraction way to get rid of infinity associated with the field ZPE are often used to avoid of these infinities (singularities). While, the energy becomes merely statistically true, i.e. Bohr s contemporary ideas of energy non conservation, so it may not be conserved in an absolute sense. However, the ethereal model shows that space-time, and in fact the fundamental (seemingly) fields itself, are yields of the physics of fluid behavior; and hence the hidden energy pool of ZPE-ether recycling is no physical reality. Accordingly, the basis quintessence of the world returns to the investigation of the particle manner and not the wave or the energetic virtual pairs, as the available amount of energy at each point is limited to (minimum possible energy and maximum up to Planck energy ) and with respect to the finiteness and being non-locality of world, no singularity in space-time structure will remain (a selfconsistent theory). To sum up, the lowest attainable energy is and on the other hand, the lowest achievable temperature at the space-time structure is 0, so it is quite impossible to reach the absolute zero Kelvin (approval of the third law of thermodynamic or that the Nernst s heat theorem). Thus, approaching to the less temperature than the, means to the observation of smaller scale than the Planck length. In other words, becoming independent of space-time (everything becomes nonsense in human consciousness) and having the lower energy than, that is absolutely impossible. Hence, the indispensible additional element, which implies to a minimum energy of h, at the second equation 4

5 introduced by Planck about the calculation of average energy of an individual quantum harmonic oscillator vibrating with frequency ν to vary with the absolute temperature T as a residual (null-point/rest) energy [13] = + For temperatures less than the minimum temperature (i.e. to obtain the zero Kelvin s) is incorrect, while the ZPE can be viewed as a straightforward consequence of the Heisenberg s uncertainty principle arose from the ether performance. As well as, the conventional conception (ascribed to Nernst [14]) that there are vast amounts of ZPE in the universe, an infinite (negative) value for the energy, so that the quite large of energy density can be extracted [15, 16] something that leads to the cosmological constant problem is physically unrealistic. Conclusion Considering the modern physics, space is not the same traditional and abstract concept in the view of classical physics, but in fact, since in quantum approach space is full of the particles (zero point radiation) and in terms of the general relativity, space-time curvature is a substitute for gravity. So, the quantum vacuum is not something other than the space-time itself, and vacuum fluctuations hypothesis is originally caused by the space-time substrate through the underlying fluid. Acknowledgment I thank to Dr. S. Ardalan for this discussion and useful guidance. References [1] Milonni, P. W, Cook, R. J., and Goggin, M.E., Phys. Rev. A, vol. 38, no. 3, pp

6 [2] Adler, Ronald J.; Brendan Casey, Ovid C. Jacob. Vacuum catastrophe: An elementary exposition of the cosmological constant problem. American Journal of Physics 63: , 1995 [3] R. Loudon, The Quantum Theory of Light (2nd ed.), Clarendon Press, Oxford (1983), p. 5. [4] S. Reynaud, Ann. Physique (1990). [5] Guth, A.H. (1981) Inflationary universe: A possible solution to the horizon and flatness problems Physical Review D 23, [6] Earman, J. and Moster ın, J. (1999) A Critical look at Inflationary Cosmology Philosophy of Science 66, 1-49 [7] Bohr, N. and Rosenfeld, L. (1933) Zur Frage des Messbarkeit der Elektromag- netischen Fieldgr ossen, Mat.-fys.Medd.Dan.Vid.Selsk. 12, no. 8. This paper appear in translation in J.A. Wheeler and W.H. Zurek (eds), Quantum Theory and Measurement (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983), pp [8] A. Rueda and B. Haisch, Found. Phys. 28 (1998) 1057 [9] Alfonso Rueda, Bernard Haisch, Gravity and the Quantum Vacuum Inertia Hypothesis, Annalen der Physik,Vol. 14, No. 8, (2005) [10] C.P. Enz, in Physical Reality and Mathematical Description, C.P. Enz and J. Mehra eds (Reidel, 1974) p.124. [11] Lamb, W. E., and Rutherford, R. C., Fine Structure of the Hydrogen Atom by Microwave Method. Phys. Rev. 72, , [12] Casimir, H.B.G, On the attraction between two perfectly conducting plates, Kon. Ned. Akad. Wetensch. Proc. 51, 61 62(1948) [13] Planck, M., Verh. der Deut. Phys. Ges. 13, p. 138, [14] Nernst, W, Verh. der Deut. Phys. Ges. 4, pp , [15] Davies, P., New Scientist, pp , Nov. 3, [16] Boyer, T. H., The Classical Vacuum, Scientific American, vol. 253, Aug.1985, pp