1900: A physics genius wandering around Europe

Chapter 556 The Mystery of the Big Bang! False Vacuum! True Vacuum! Vacuum Phase Transition! Eternal Nirvana!
After Li Qiwei proposed the concept of vacuum zero-point energy, the entire venue was shocked.

It breaks everyone's perception of vacuum!

The vacuum is not empty, but is filled with energy that permeates the entire universe.

Because of the uncertainty principle, these energies will undergo quantum vacuum fluctuations, resulting in the random birth of virtual particle pairs.

But under normal circumstances, these virtual particle pairs will annihilate each other and return energy to the vacuum.

This theory sounds so incredible.

Everyone has too many questions.

Physicists are wondering how correct this theory is.

Following Professor Bruce's analysis, many people have begun to realize that the existing concept of vacuum is problematic.

But this does not mean that the other party’s theory is necessarily correct.

Everything needs experimental verification!

Planck looked shocked. He did not expect that his paper would lead to such an incredible concept as vacuum zero-point energy.

If it really exists, it would be a revolution in physics!
The vacuum is far more mysterious than humans imagine!
Planck said with emotion:

"Bruce, you are amazing!"

“You have opened up a whole new field!”

However, for those who are not majoring in physics.

They began to imagine the applications of vacuum zero-point energy.

For a time, everyone was talking about it.

Someone asked:

"Professor Bruce, if we can master and utilize vacuum zero-point energy, wouldn't that be equivalent to having endless energy?"

Li Qiwei smiled and said:
“It’s a good idea, but it’s not allowed.”

"If we can extract vacuum zero-point energy, it would violate the second law of thermodynamics and the law of increasing entropy."

"Because the vacuum is now in the ground state, which is the state with the lowest energy."

"We can no longer remove and extract any energy from a vacuum."

"If you insist on getting it, you will have to use more energy to achieve the act of [getting]."

“It’s pointless.”

Wow!
When everyone heard this, their faces were filled with regret.

Obviously, if vacuum zero-point energy can be used at will, it would be the cleanest and most useful energy.

In later generations, many science fiction novels like to use the scientific element of vacuum zero-point energy.

The aliens’ advanced spacecraft can directly extract vacuum zero-point energy, thereby achieving interstellar flight.

There are even people who use vacuum zero-point energy to create perpetual motion machines.

But unfortunately, these are all misunderstandings of vacuum zero-point energy and are impossible to achieve.

At this time, someone asked again:

"Professor Bruce, how big is the vacuum zero-point energy?"

"For example, in a vacuum of one cubic meter, how much zero-point energy does it contain?"

Li Qiwei replied:
"I do not know either."

"The concepts of quantum vacuum fluctuations and vacuum zero-point energy that I proposed are still just my conjectures."

"Their correctness needs to be verified experimentally."

In real history, quantum vacuum fluctuations and vacuum zero-point energy have indeed been experimentally proven.

That is the famous [Casimir effect].

In 1948, Dutch physicist Casimir proposed a thought experiment.

If you place two very thin electrically neutral metal plates close to each other, when the distance is close enough, there will be an attractive force between the two metal plates.

Because the experiment required extremely high precision, the Casimir effect was not verified until 1996.

The metal plate used by the researchers is only about 0.05 microns thick.

When the gap between the two metal plates is only 10 nanometers (the diameter of 100 atoms), a pressure roughly equivalent to one standard atmosphere is generated on the metal plates.

Why is this?

Assuming that quantum vacuum fluctuations exist, virtual photons will be generated simultaneously on the inside and outside of the metal plate.

The wavelengths of these virtual photons cover a wide range, and virtual photons of various wavelengths exist.

However, due to the limitations of the gaps in the metal plates, virtual photons with longer wavelengths will be squeezed out inside the metal plates.

Therefore, the energy density inside the metal plate will be lower than that outside.

This creates a force that pulls the plates toward each other, appearing to attract each other.

This is the famous Casimir effect, and this force is also called Casimir force.

The process of generating force in the middle is very complicated and requires knowledge of quantum field theory, vacuum polarization, etc.

According to calculations, the experimentally measured force differs from the theoretically predicted value by only 1%.

The Casimir effect strongly proves the existence of quantum vacuum fluctuations and also proves the existence of vacuum zero-point energy.

Later, physicists used quantum field theory to theoretically calculate that the density of vacuum zero-point energy is as high as 2×10^103 joules per cubic centimeter.

This is an extremely terrifying astronomical figure!

What concept?

You stretch out your five fingers and then make a fist. The vacuum zero-point energy contained in the space where your fist is located is higher than the energy of all matter in the entire universe.

This is simply like a fairy tale!
However, astronomers have discovered through observations and calculations of the universe that the energy density of vacuum zero-point energy is only 2×10^-17 joules per cubic centimeter.

The theoretical predictions of physicists and the experimental measurements of astronomers differed by a full 120 orders of magnitude.

Obviously, one of them must be wrong.

In short, the physics community has reached a consensus on the existence of vacuum zero-point energy without any doubt.

However, its various properties are still under in-depth research, and it is like a dark cloud in the sky.

Therefore, at this moment, Li Qiwei could not accurately answer the other party's question.

He continued:

"Extended quantum mechanics is not sufficient to describe the behavior of quantum vacuum fluctuations."

"So I think quantum mechanics is far from reaching its end!"

boom!
This caused a complete sensation in the venue.

Schrödinger, Heisenberg and others were all shocked.

Both of them thought their theories were the final version of quantum mechanics.

However, in Professor Bruce's eyes, isn't this the end?

The magic of quantum mechanics exceeded their imagination.

However, they agreed with Professor Bruce's judgment.

In real history, the reason why quantum mechanics evolved into quantum field theory was because of the study of vacuum.

The so-called quantum field theory, as the name suggests, combines quantum concepts with classical field theory (plus the special theory of relativity).

In traditional quantum mechanics, only energy, particles, etc. are quantized.

But physicists have discovered something they can't explain.

For example, the movement and interaction of photons in electromagnetic fields.

According to classical field theory, the electromagnetic field is continuously and uniformly distributed in the vacuum of the universe.

But there is a contradiction between this continuous field and the quantized photons.

After all, one is continuous and the other is discontinuous, so there will be problems even in mathematical calculations.

So, a group of physicists led by Dirac suddenly had an idea:
Why not quantize the field as well!

The first target they targeted was the electromagnetic field because physicists were most familiar with it.

Dirac proved mathematically that the electromagnetic field can be quantized as a system with infinite degrees of freedom.

The quantized electromagnetic field is not continuous but discrete.

In this way, the behavior of the discretized electromagnetic field and photons can be well unified.

Quantum field theory was born.

It can be said to be the most important physical theoretical framework in later generations.

All quantum phenomena can be explained by quantum field theory.

On its basis, new theories such as quantum electrodynamics, quantum chromodynamics, electroweak unification, and the standard model have been developed.

A large number of geniuses such as Yang Zhenning, Li Zhengdao, Feynman, Schwinger, etc. have emerged, and the stars are shining!
At this moment, Li Qiwei felt his blood boiling when he thought of this!

At his current age, these future geniuses can only be considered his grandchildren.

Will they create the same legend in this life?

Or: "I can achieve what I have today thanks to Professor Bruce's cultivation."

Suddenly, everyone noticed that something was wrong with Professor Bruce.

There was a silly smile on his face.

Someone joked:
"Professor Bruce was amazed by his own theory!"

"He must think he's so awesome. How could he come up with such a theory?"

Then, everyone saw Professor Bruce's demeanor suddenly change.

He seemed to be in a state of extreme excitement.

Soon, under everyone's curiosity, Li Qiwei came to his senses and said something shocking.

"Everyone, I just had a sudden inspiration and thought of a theory that is closely related to vacuum zero-point energy."

"At the second Bruce Conference, I proposed the Big Bang hypothesis."

"At the time, I thought the universe was born in a big bang and that our universe was expanding."

"Today, the expansion of the universe has been verified by Hubble, but the Big Bang theory is only a conjecture."

"What was the singularity before the explosion?"

"What was the explosion like?"

“How did everything in the universe come into being?”

"What about the solution to our universe?"

"and many more!"

“We know nothing about these issues.”

"But today, the concept of vacuum zero-point energy has given me new inspiration."

"Perhaps, I can give a rough explanation of the Big Bang process."

Wow!
The meeting place, which had been relatively calm just now, erupted into exclamations again!
Everyone's eyes widened in disbelief.

"Did Professor Bruce take drugs today? Why is he so strong?"

“His inspiration is endless!”

"Why is it that every time I have a brainstorm, I only have a brain but no brainstorm, while Professor Bruce can create a cosmic-level brainstorm?"

"too strong!"

"What is the relationship between vacuum zero-point energy and the Big Bang energy?"

Everyone was talking about it.

Their curiosity is intense.

Everyone could see that Professor Bruce had completely let his imagination run wild.

Quantum vacuum fluctuations derived from the uncertainty principle have led to all kinds of bizarre conjectures.

It has even been connected to the Big Bang Theory.

This is simply the best divergent thinking teaching class.

Schrödinger was shocked when he heard this.

He thought the lecture was almost over and Professor Bruce was about to explain the uncertainty principle.

But I didn’t expect that we would discuss the Big Bang.

The style of painting changed too quickly!

Caught people off guard.

However, his face was full of excitement.

“This speech was a great success!”

"Professor Bruce made the boring and profound quantum mechanics so fascinating that ordinary people could not stop and their imaginations ran wild, which aroused their strong interest." "He did not explain those complicated mathematical formulas in depth, but used logical deductions to make people understand those unconventional and common sense concepts."

"This kind of speech requires the speaker's level and knowledge to reach an extremely high level."

Schrödinger felt deeply:
"In the entire scientific community, I'm afraid only Professor Bruce can do this!"

At this moment, Planck, Einstein and others also became interested.

Since the Big Bang theory was proposed, not many people have studied it.

It’s not that everyone doesn’t want to, but they have no idea where to start.

Existing theories are simply unable to describe this geometric explosion process of space.

As for how matter came into being, it is even more difficult to understand.

Therefore, the Big Bang is merely a conjecture and an unsolved mystery in physics.

But now, Professor Bruce has found inspiration from vacuum zero-point energy.

The physics experts are very curious.

Li Chengdao looked at Li Chengde again.

"Second brother?"

"Brother, stop looking. I really won't do it this time. Father's imagination has exceeded my intuition."

He said nothing, but was secretly happy and felt a little relieved.

Under the gaze of everyone, Li Qiwei continued:
"According to my Big Bang theory, the expansion of the universe from an infinitely small singularity to its current size is actually the expansion of space."

"So, how did matter in the universe come into being out of nothing?"

"Maybe someone has already guessed it."

"Yes, it comes from vacuum zero-point energy!"

"The vacuum itself contains infinite energy."

"And the matter in the universe comes from violent quantum vacuum fluctuations."

“Let’s take a bold approach.”

"At the moment of the Big Bang, space was like boiling water, boiling everywhere."

"The vacuum at this time is not in the ground state, but in an extremely active state, which can be called a [false vacuum]."

"The energy density of a false vacuum is extremely high. Due to some special mechanisms, the virtual particles produced by quantum fluctuations can easily become real particles and form real matter."

"As more and more vacuum energy is converted into matter, the false vacuum moves closer and closer to the ground state."

"Until a certain point, the energy in the vacuum can no longer be transformed into matter, and the explosion ends."

"Then the universe evolved on its own, and various microscopic particles combined with each other to form today's cosmic structure."

"The vacuum at this time is the real [true vacuum]."

"This transition from a false vacuum to a true vacuum is somewhat similar to the phase transition process in physics."

“So, I call it [vacuum phase transition].”

quiet!
The entire venue was silent.

Everyone was extremely shocked by the theory of vacuum phase transition!
At this time, Li Qiwei continued:
"Many people may be confused. Let me give you another vivid example."

"Suppose there is a pen standing on the table with the tip pointing downwards."

"Although the pen is symmetrical at this point, it is not [stable]."

"The pen would fall down in a random direction."

“In the process, it releases its own potential energy.”

"The vacuum phase transition is a similar process."

"The early false vacuum was the equivalent of a pen standing upright."

"Although it appears to be a vacuum, it is in an unstable excited state."

"And the process of the pen falling is the process of false vacuum phase transition."

"In this process, the energy of the false vacuum is released until it becomes the ground state of the true vacuum, which is when the pen lies horizontally on the table."

"At this point, the pen can remain in the same position forever and no longer move. At the same time, it can no longer release energy."

“That’s the vacuum we have right now.”

boom!
There was a sudden sound of people gasping for air in the conference hall.

Even people who don't understand physics can understand it.

This theory is really shocking!

"Oh, God!"

"Why do I feel like Professor Bruce is creating the world!"

"The universe was born from nothing, and everything came from nothing."

"Professor Bruce has insight into God's methods!"

"So scary!"

Everyone was simply shocked!
The Big Bang theory combined with the vacuum phase transition theory actually explains the formation of the universe and matter in a logically self-consistent way.

This is incredible!
Planck, Einstein and other great men were completely stunned.

Even they were shocked!
“Bruce actually applied quantum mechanics to the origin of the universe.”

“What a wild imagination!”

"What on earth is his brain like?"

Heisenberg was breathing rapidly and looked excited.

He felt like an octogenarian with rotten thoughts in front of Professor Bruce.

“This is the true physical intuition!”

"Although I invented matrix mechanics, I am far behind Professor Bruce in its application."

Heisenberg was very clear that whether it was vacuum zero-point energy or vacuum phase transition, these theories were currently just conjectures.

But there is a difference between conjecture and hypothesis.

Some people's conjectures are pure fantasy, while Professor Bruce's conjectures are based on existing theories and depict a grand blueprint for physics.

Schrödinger sighed inwardly.

Why aren't these conjectures based on his wave mechanics?

After today's speech, there may be a wave of research on matrix mechanics.

Since Professor Bruce was able to derive the uncertainty principle from matrix mechanics, he then proposed quantum vacuum fluctuations.

So is it possible that they will discover new theories?

Li Chengdao looked at the stage in shock.

His admiration for his father reached its peak at this moment.

“Is this my father’s strength?”

“It’s really something that one can only look up to!”

"The same theory is just cold and boring mathematics in other people's hands, but in my father's hands, it becomes a powerful weapon that can shake the world."

"Flying flowers and plucked leaves can hurt people!"

A bright gleam flashed across Li Chengde's lazy eyes.

He murmured in a low voice:

"I see."

Then he resumed his nonchalant demeanor.

At this time, Einstein suddenly asked:
"Bruce, you predicted before that the universe would have three endings: continue to expand, contract, or maintain equilibrium."

"So now, with the emergence of vacuum zero-point energy, do you think the fate of the universe will change?"

Everyone was shocked when they heard this.

That’s a good question!
When Professor Bruce first proposed the Big Bang hypothesis, quantum mechanics had not yet been created.

At that time, he could only make a guess about the end of the universe based on the process of explosion and expansion.

But now, with vacuum zero-point energy, will the fate of the universe change?

Li Qiwei was stunned when he heard this, then smiled slightly and said:

"In fact, everyone can continue to think along the lines of my theory."

"Let's make another bold assumption."

"What if the current vacuum is not the ground state?"

"It's like the fallen pen. When we look at it with a magnifying glass, we find that there is a very small angle between it and the table."

"The pen hasn't completely fallen down yet!"

"If the vacuum is also like this, then the phase transition is not over yet!"

"Although we don't know the exact value of the current vacuum zero-point energy, it is definitely a positive number."

"And if the vacuum continues to change phases, is it possible that its zero-point energy will become truly zero?"

"Of course, from the definition of vacuum zero-point energy, it is the energy inherent in the quantum system and cannot be zero, otherwise it would not conform to the uncertainty principle."

"But we can boldly imagine, if the energy in the vacuum is really gone, then what will it become?"

Someone suddenly said:
"It is nothingness."

Li Qiwei said:
"Yes, it is the real nothingness!"

"Even the vacuum itself no longer exists."

"We cannot imagine what a vacuum without energy would look like."

"But that would be true [nothing]."

“There’s no concept of existence anymore.”

hiss!
Everyone just felt their scalps tingling, it was horrifying.

No matter which of the three endings of the universe before, at least it still exists.

For example, if the expansion continues, there will be more and more matter.

Maintain balance and keep the substance unchanged.

The universe contracts, eventually turning into a singularity, and then explodes again, forming a cycle.

Even if it is an infinitely small singularity, it is still a kind of existence.

But it is different when the vacuum phase transition reaches zero point energy.

nothing left.

[Existence] no longer exists.

It is the true eternal nirvana!

It’s chilling just to think about it!

There were several philosophers present, looking excited; they felt that the end of physics was philosophy.

Existence and nothingness, this is the ultimate proposition of philosophers.

At this time, Li Qiwei smiled and added:
"Don't be too scared."

"Let's not talk about whether my guess is right or not."

"Even if it is correct, the vacuum phase transition, a movement on a cosmic scale, is beyond the control of human power."

"So, there's no point in thinking about it."

"It's better to think about how to prove the phenomenon of quantum vacuum fluctuations."

"If that's proven wrong, great, no one needs to be sad."

"I'm the only one who's sad."

Everyone smiled knowingly.

In later generations, the origin of the universe is also one of the ultimate problems in physics.

Although there are various theories, none of them has been verified.

The vacuum phase transition mentioned by Li Qiwei is just one of the conjectures.

Perhaps, only when the four fundamental forces are unified can humans truly uncover the mystery of the birth of the universe.

Li Qiwei suddenly became very passionate.

In this world, he is the only one who has a glimmer of hope.

"Let me end everything in the universe with my own hands!"

(End of this chapter)