
The awakening of the vacuum energy
Date: Tuesday, September 21, 2010 @ 20:39:31 UTC Topic: Science
Why 'the nothing,' is really something
Posted by Flash Modin on PhysicsCentral.com
...Like Lewis, many initially envision the vacuum of space as a place of "utter deadness" and it fuels cold thoughts of a universe devoid of action. But for decades, physicists attempting to unify quantum mechanics and relativity have been accidentally painting a contradictory and compelling picture of what actually separates the worlds. The subtle, yet critical properties of the vacuum are now needed to fully describe many bizarre phenomena in the cosmos.
From the Dirac sea model of a vacuum as an ocean of negatively charged
particles to the Casimir effect that dictates there will be a force
between two or more objects because their presence alters the vacuum
energy; such examples shatter the depressing misconception of an aether
of nothingness.
...
"Considering that 95-percent of the energy content of the universe is unknown, finding ways of testing the existence of free fields is very welcome," the authors state in the paper. "The awakening of the vacuum energy of certain fields may determine the ultimate fate of some relativistic stars."
Full article: http://www.physicscentral.com/buzz/blog/index.cfm?postid=2287930687296917837
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