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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 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 ...
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 ...
A classical continuous random field can be constructed that has the same probability density as the quantum vacuum state, so that the principal difference from quantum field theory is the measurement theory (measurement in quantum theory is different from measurement for a classical continuous random field, in that classical measurements are ...
The inflaton field is a hypothetical scalar field which is conjectured to have driven cosmic inflation in the very early universe. [1] [2] [3] The field, originally postulated by Alan Guth, [1] provides a mechanism by which a period of rapid expansion from 10 −35 to 10 −34 seconds after the initial expansion can be generated, forming a universe not inconsistent with observed spatial ...
In theoretical physics, quantum field theory (QFT) is a theoretical framework that combines field theory and the principle of relativity with ideas behind 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 .
The term zero-point field (ZPF) can be used when referring to a specific vacuum field, for instance the QED vacuum which specifically deals with quantum electrodynamics (e.g., electromagnetic interactions between photons, electrons and the vacuum) or the QCD vacuum which deals with quantum chromodynamics (e.g., color charge interactions between ...
After the development of quantum field theory in the 1940s, the first to address contributions of quantum fluctuations to the cosmological constant was Yakov Zeldovich in the 1960s. [8] [9] In quantum mechanics, the vacuum itself should experience quantum fluctuations. In general relativity, those quantum fluctuations constitute energy that ...