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In cosmology, the cosmological constant problem or vacuum catastrophe is the substantial disagreement between the observed values of vacuum energy density (the small value of the cosmological constant) and the much larger theoretical value of zero-point energy suggested by quantum field theory.
The video of an experiment showing vacuum fluctuations (in the red ring) amplified by spontaneous parametric down-conversion.. If the quantum field theory can be accurately described through perturbation theory, then the properties of the vacuum are analogous to the properties of the ground state of a quantum mechanical harmonic oscillator, or more accurately, the ground state of a measurement ...
In theoretical physics, quantum field theory (QFT) is a theoretical framework that combines classical field theory, special relativity, and quantum mechanics. [ 1 ] : xi QFT is used in particle physics to construct physical models of subatomic particles and in condensed matter physics to construct models of quasiparticles .
Thus, according to the theory, even the vacuum has a vastly complex structure and all calculations of quantum field theory must be made in relation to this model of the vacuum. The theory considers vacuum to implicitly have the same properties as a particle, such as spin or polarization in the case of light, energy, and so on. According to the ...
In quantum field theory, a false vacuum [1] is a hypothetical vacuum state that is locally stable but does not occupy the most stable possible ground state. [2] In this condition it is called metastable. It may last for a very long time in this state, but could eventually decay to the more stable one, an event known as false vacuum decay.
The Savvidy vacuum is a model of the QCD vacuum which at a basic level is a statement that it cannot be the conventional Fock vacuum empty of particles and fields. In 1977, George Savvidy showed [ 12 ] that the QCD vacuum with zero field strength is unstable, and decays into a state with a calculable non vanishing value of the field.
The quantum theory asserts that a vacuum, even the most perfect vacuum devoid of any matter, is not really empty. Rather the quantum vacuum can be depicted as a sea of continuously appearing and disappearing [pairs of] particles that manifest themselves in the apparent jostling of particles that is quite distinct from their thermal motions.
If a quantum field is free and Euclidean-invariant in the spatial dimensions, then that field's vacuum does not polarize. If two Poincaré-invariant quantum fields share the same vacuum, then their first four Wightman functions coincide. Moreover, if one such field is free, then the other must also be a free field of the same mass.