1900: A physics genius wandering around Europe

Chapter 553: Quantum vacuum fluctuations! Mysterious virtual particles! Void creations! Shocking everyone!
When Li Qiwei said that the vacuum is not empty, the whole audience was shocked.

There is actually a fourth explanation for the vacuum?
Everyone found it incredible!

The third layer of vacuum that Rabi mentioned is already an absolute vacuum in the physical sense.

But according to Professor Bruce's explanation, the vacuum of the third layer still retains [physical existence].

This is really a bit unbelievable.

"What could that be?"

At this moment, facing the eager gazes of the crowd, Li Qiwei smiled slightly, showing his unparalleled dominance.

He opened his mouth and said:

"Dr. Rabi believes that the third vacuum in the eyes of physicists is the absence of both particles and electromagnetic waves."

“Without particles, there is no gravity, strong force, or weak force; without electromagnetic waves, there is no electromagnetic force.”

"When the four great powers do not exist, there is indeed nothing."

"But what if we consider the vacuum itself as a physical entity?"

Wow!
The whole audience burst into exclamations!
People thought this view was a bit outrageous.

"How can a vacuum be a physical existence?"

"A vacuum is a vacuum. How can it exist if it is already empty?"

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When Planck, Einstein and other bigwigs heard this, they were not surprised, but frowned slightly.

They rarely showed doubtful expressions.

Because this answer is somewhat inconsistent with Bruce's level and seems to be a bit of sophistry.

At this time, the young and impulsive rabbi could not help but ask:
"Professor, I think there is something wrong with what you said."

"It's like a cup filled with water. The water is the physical entities such as particles and electromagnetic waves, and the cup is the vacuum."

"When we discuss the concept of vacuum, the cup is the foundation or background. It carries everything and is the most basic concept."

"But now you say that the cup exists just like the water, so what does the cup exist in?"

“That is: if the vacuum is a physical entity, then what is [the thing] that carries the vacuum?”

“Can [that thing] also be considered a physical existence?”

"In that case, what is the [that thing] that carries [that thing]?"

“This is a logical dead end.”

After the rabbi finished speaking, the venue immediately erupted in heated discussions.

Obviously, the rabbi's thoughts expressed the doubts in everyone's hearts.

Planck and other bigwigs also nodded slightly.

When we talk about a vacuum, there has to be a baseline.

Otherwise, you can only do it infinitely.

Li Chengdao clasped his hands together and thought quietly.

He also thought there was something wrong with his father's statement.

But his intuition told him that his father would never make such a simple logical error.

"There must be a deeper meaning!"

Li Chengde yawned and said in a boastful tone:

"The rabbi is not keeping his cool at all."

"Don't you see your father smiling over there?"

"There's more to come."

"Moreover, even if the vacuum is a physical existence, it will not be a nesting doll, because the one that carries the vacuum is [nothingness]."

“Vacuum and nothingness are not the same concept.”

“Nothingness is the true end of everything. Not only is there no physics, there is no thought or philosophy.”

"So, there's nothing surprising about the vacuum being a physical existence."

After listening to Li Chengde's nonsense, Li Chengdao silently classified his second brother as a charlatan.

"This kid is crazy."

At this moment, Li Qiwei took in everyone's expressions and said with a smile:

"Haha, Dr. Rabbi, don't be anxious, I haven't finished yet."

Upon hearing this, the rabbi blushed.

Sure enough, Professor Bruce would not shoot without a purpose.

He himself could see the problem, so how could a great being like Professor Bruce not know it?

"Sorry, Professor."

Ridgeway continued:
"For the time being, let's not discuss the connotation of vacuum from the perspective of language concepts and boundaries."

"For example, what can hold a vacuum, the concept of nesting dolls."

"The vacuum that the rabbis refer to is the empty space in our universe."

"This should be clear, and I believe everyone has no doubts about it."

"So, what I'm going to talk about next is the vacuum, which refers to the real space in our universe, not the concept of 'emptiness' in a linguistic or philosophical sense."

"When I say that vacuum is a physical entity, it is not an unfounded conjecture."

"According to general relativity, space itself is curved."

“In a sense, this is also a kind of exercise.”

"From this point of view, the vacuum is by no means a permanent and unchanging background."

"It is indeed an incredible physical existence."

"Of course, this alone does not mean that there is anything wrong with Dr. Rabi's concept of the third vacuum."

"Because even though the vacuum is physically real and in motion, it behaves as if it were empty."

"There is no doubt about it."

"but!"

"I think that a vacuum can create matter out of nothing!"

"It can create things out of nothing!"

boom!
The whole audience was shocked!

Everyone couldn't believe their ears.

"Void Creation?"

“Isn’t this God’s work?”

"There is nothing in the vacuum, so where can we get the raw materials to create things?"

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"

"Why is Professor Bruce getting more and more outrageous?"

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At this moment, the venue was boiling!

Creating things out of nothing, what a mysterious and bizarre thing that is?

Most of the people present here have studied natural sciences, so you can imagine the shock they were feeling.

The rabbi's mouth opened in astonishment.

He no longer understood Professor Bruce at all.

Einstein, Heisenberg and others were shocked, with sharp eyes gleaming with excitement.

They believed that Professor Bruce must have made a major discovery!
Li Chengdao's face was full of disbelief:

“Is this the charm of my father’s speech?”

"Sure enough, once you hear it once, you can't help yourself."

"But, how is this possible?"

A gleam of inspiration flashed in Li Chengde's eyes as he played with the world.

He said carelessly:

"What's so surprising about the Void Creation?"

"Otherwise, where does all the matter in our universe come from?"

call!
At this moment, although everyone was full of doubts, no one immediately refuted Professor Bruce.

Since the other party has expressed such a shocking opinion, he must have reasons for being absolutely confident.

So, Li Qiwei continued:

"How can a vacuum create something out of nothing?"

“The answer comes from the uncertainty principle!”

“The uncertainty principle has two major uncertainty relations.”

"They are: the position-momentum uncertainty relation, and the time-energy uncertainty relation."

"This is the law that all microscopic particles must obey."

"Now, if we accept that vacuum is also a strange physical existence."

"Then the vacuum must also satisfy the time-energy uncertainty relation." "In an extremely small vacuum, within an extremely small time interval, the energy in this tiny vacuum will be extremely unstable."

"According to my calculations and speculations, this change in energy will appear in the form of [virtual particle pairs]."

"So-called virtual particles correspond to real particles in the universe."

“It can’t be measured directly, but it has [measurable effects].”

"That is, although virtual particles are invisible and unmeasurable, they can participate in quantum processes."

"So, in a sense, they are also a physical being."

"It's just that the properties of virtual particles are very different from those of real particles."

"These virtual particles appear as if out of thin air."

"They exist for a short time and soon dissolve back into the vacuum of space."

"In the field of physics, when a physical quantity deviates from a certain average value, there is a professional term called fluctuation."

“So, I named this process of virtual particles appearing out of thin air in a vacuum and then disappearing as ‘quantum vacuum fluctuations’.”

"According to quantum vacuum fluctuations, no matter how short the existence of a virtual particle is, it has existed at some point."

"If you put it in the vacuum of the entire universe, then quantum vacuum fluctuations are happening everywhere all the time."

“So, the rabbi’s third level of vacuum explanation is not really a vacuum.”

"There are countless fleeting virtual particles in the vacuum!"

“This is my fourth level of understanding of vacuum.”

boom!
Everyone was shocked!
Everyone was stunned and couldn't say a word.

The venue fell into an eerie silence.

The quantum vacuum fluctuation hypothesis is really too incredible and shocking!

It sounds like a fairy tale!
"Virtual particles?"

“Who can tell me what virtual particles are?”

Einstein, Heisenberg and others were shocked!

The theory of quantum vacuum fluctuations is so shocking!

And it comes from the corollary of the uncertainty principle.

In other words, logically speaking, there is nothing wrong with Bruce's theory.

If the vacuum is a physical entity like particles, then it seems nothing wrong to follow the uncertainty principle.

And the introduction of virtual particles is absolutely brilliant.

It is just like introducing "imaginary numbers" in mathematics, making the originally uncalculatable process become calculable.

Virtual particles have become the carriers of this energy that appears out of thin air!
It also satisfies the uncertainty principle.

That is, the greater the energy of a virtual particle, the shorter the period of its existence.

This new theory is so innovative!

Regardless of whether it is correct or not, based on this conjecture alone, Professor Bruce has opened up a new research direction.

It's really horrifying!

Heisenberg could not help but exclaim:

"Professor Bruce's ideas are so wild!"

Heisenberg was extremely excited. No matter how absurd this theory was, he had begun to accept it.

Because quantum vacuum fluctuations come from the uncertainty principle, and the uncertainty principle comes from matrix mechanics.

So, after simplification, quantum vacuum fluctuations come from matrix mechanics.

"My Heisenberg matrix mechanics is invincible!"

After listening to this, Li Chengdao even forgot how to think.

The word "energy" kept turning over and over in his mind.

He muttered to himself in disbelief.

"how is this possible?"

"The second kid was actually right?"

"The fourth level of vacuum that my father mentioned is actually related to energy?"

"Because of the uncertainty principle, a vacuum creates energy out of nothing."

"This energy appears again as virtual particles."

"Then the virtual particles become energy again and return to the vacuum."

"This"

“It’s breathtaking!”

He shook Li Chengde vigorously and said:

"Second brother, tell me quickly, how did you come up with this idea?"

"You're not confused, are you?"

Li Chengde shrugged and said coolly:

"Brother, calm down."

"If you insist I should think of a reason."

"Then I can only say that it is physical intuition."

"It just occurred to me in an instant, for no reason."

Li Chengdao was shocked.

Although he was annoyed by the second brother's pretense, he believed this excuse.

Because he believed that the second child inherited his father's terrifying physics intuition!

In the physics community, everyone knows that Professor Bruce's intuition is more terrifying than his strength.

He can always draw extremely profound truths from some subtle details.

Or you can be as imaginative and creative as possible, breaking the constraints of ordinary people's thinking and proposing new concepts.

Although the second child’s academic performance is not very good, he may have inherited his father’s god-like intuition.

This intuition is useless when viewed alone, but it always shows its power at critical moments.

For a moment, Li Chengdao felt both envious and bitter.

"I wonder what traits I will inherit from my father?"

Li Chengde hugged Li Chengdao and said with a mysterious smile:

"Brother, you will inherit all of Dad's inheritance."

Li Chengdao burst out laughing, then gave his second brother a roasted chestnut on the head.

"Can you speak?"

At this moment, Li Qiwei looked at the shocked expressions of the crowd and remained calm.

The concept of virtual particles is indeed a bit difficult to understand.

Many people confuse virtual particles and antiparticles.

In real history, after Dirac derived the Dirac equation, he calculated based on the equation and predicted that "antimatter" should exist.

For example, normal electrons are negatively charged, while anti-electrons are positively charged.

Normal protons are positively charged, while antiprotons are negatively charged.

These antimatter particles can be called antiparticles.

But whether it is a positive particle or an antiparticle, they are real particles that can be seen and touched.

It's just that the properties of the two are exactly opposite.

It's like an apple and an anti-apple, both can be eaten and both have flavors, but the taste is different.

But virtual particles are different. The "virtual" here means that they are incontactable in three-dimensional space.

To put it in a more vivid way, the virtual apple seems to exist in another dimension.

We know it exists, but we just can't eat it.

In addition, virtual particles also have their own anti-virtual particles.

Therefore, the "virtual particle pair" that Li Qiwei mentioned refers to a positive virtual particle and an anti-virtual particle.

After the two appear, they will quickly annihilate each other and return the energy to the vacuum.

In addition, virtual particles are particles that can [carry force].

The basic structure of matter is fermions, but the interaction between matter is achieved by bosons.

Therefore, not all real particles have corresponding virtual particles.

For example, electrons have anti-electrons but no virtual electrons.

As for photons, they do not have anti-photons (or their antimatter is itself), but they have virtual photons and anti-virtual photons.

Of course, some of the above virtual particles only exist in theory and have not yet been confirmed.

However, quantum vacuum fluctuations are a theory that has been proven by precise experiments.

While everyone was thinking and discussing, the rabbi asked another strange question.

(End of this chapter)