Dance of the Void: Quantum Foam (English)

 

Dance of the Void: Quantum Foam

A hundred years ago, our view of the fundamental laws of the universe would radically change.

While we were living happily with Newton's gravity, while we were just starting to digest Maxwell's equations and electromagnetism, we were faced with a brand new universe, a little by chance, or as an inevitable result of the efforts of scientists who always dared to look deeper.

First of all, special relativity and then quantum physics left no stone unturned, and the world of physics was surprised at what had happened.

They use the word "intuitive" a lot in these situations. We translate intuitively. It's logical and logical. Newton's laws were "intuitive", for example. The laws and our experiences were parallel and overlapped. It was classic. He was telling directly about our experiences, beautifully expressing our relationship with the universe.

Together with Quantum Physics and special relativity, the word "non-intuitive" has become one of the most used words in the scientific world. There are statistics about the frequency of use of this word. If we look, we will most likely see that it peaked after the 1920s. Brand new laws that are not "intuitive" at all, that have nothing to do with our experience.

And where? Inside us. In everything. Basically. The behavior of atoms and subatomic particles that make up everything. It wasn't "intuitive" at all.

We saw that moving and stationary clocks flow differently, cats can be both dead and alive.

Since everything is so "unperceptible", countless attacks have been carried out on quantum mechanics, especially on Einstein. Even today, amateur or professional, many scientists or science enthusiasts come forward claiming to have found fatal flaws in this theory, but soon find their "discovery" disproved years ago.

So whatever we do, no matter how hard we try, there is a truth.

Quantum Mechanics is history's most successful theory of measurements and computations, and it's not going anywhere.

First of all, you know. Special relativity arose in 1905, and quantum mechanics took shape from the 1920s onwards, thanks to the giants.

At first, these two theories were thought to be separate, and theories were being developed accordingly.

But then someone noticed the strangeness.

Especially a name. Paul Dirac. In 1928, he mathematically discovered a brand new substance with his equations. Yeah. It's so weird. Because 4 years later, in 1932, Carl Anderson proved this discovery of Dirac with experiments and observations. There was such a thing as antimatter.

Among the very different consequences of this, one of the most important was the unification of Quantum Mechanics and Special Relativity and the birth of Relativistic or Relativistic Quantum Mechanics.

In fact, Dirac had made one of the most important scientific "combinations" in history.

In the 1940s, what we knew about the quantum universe began to sit on much more solid foundations.

Here was the first fruit of this unified theory with Quantum Electrodynamics developed by Feynman, Schwinger and Tomonaga.

The two electrons would approach each other, exchanging a photon at one point, and then scattering in other directions.

No problem so far.

One gives electrons, the other takes. They are going their way.

But what do we know very well? Photons are massless.

So the photons we know. Photons of ordinary light. That's their thing. They are massless.

But do you know how the photons we see here are? Massive. Yeah. Mass photons.

Strange.

How come?

But it's actually that simple.

The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle explains this to us.

According to this principle, a very high energy can appear and be lost in plank time, in very, very short periods of time.

The higher the energy, the faster it is lost.

Since these photons, which are exchanged and exchanged by electrons, carry very high energy in a very short time, they actually behave as if they have "mass".

But the real craziness is not here. We haven't even started yet.

Quantum Electrodynamics also tells us something else.

I want you to think about this. A short time. Stop and just think about this phrase.

“Nothing Is Actually Something”

“Nothing Is Actually Nothing”

Let's digest this.

Let's go deep into space together. Let's find a place where the dust of any substance is not touched, and there is not even the slightest meteor near it, calculated in light years. To an empty place with no particles.

Let's look with our eyes first. What we see is nothing.

Let's get a microscope. Let's get closer. No. Again nothing.

Let's get some power. Let's take a look at the quantum level. Maybe we'll find something.

And…

“Nothing is actually a thing.”

There is something, isn't there?

So what are we looking at?

Here. In vacuum, electrons, positrons, quarks and anti-quarks are born out of nothing and return to nothingness again. whether there is. They disappear. What we call nothingness is actually not empty at all. Many things are going on. Something is happening. We call these "virtual particles".

Scientists looking at this image also came up with a nickname. Remember the foam of carbonated drinks. Bubbles disappear and appear. Based on this, they called this movement of the vacuum "quantum foam".

But of course there is a question, right? The most important question.

How do we know? How can we know that?

Beyond our estimates. Do we have proof?

Fortunately there is.

Casimir Effect.

This phenomenon, which was predicted and later proven by a scientist named Hendrick Casimir, proves these virtual particles as follows.

Now we know that these, these particles are everywhere.

And we know this. According to quantum mechanics, every particle has both wave and particle properties. This also applies to virtual particles.

These virtual particles can have both long and short wavelengths.

Now let's take two plates and place them so close to each other that long wavelength particles do not arise in the distance between them. So close. In this case, there will be more virtual particles on the outside of the plates than between them. As a result, yes, the plates will converge towards each other.

And this has been proven by experiments. Indeed, out of the blue, the plates came close to each other. It's like magic. But it is not.

The majesty of nothingness.

Another piece of evidence we have is from magnetism.

Electrons. It has an electric charge and a rotation. What did Faraday say? If something is electrically charged and spinning, it is a magnet. You can try this at home too. Likewise, since the electron has these properties, it actually acts like a magnet. In this way, we can calculate the magnetic force that each electron should have. On paper at least. We have a certain guess.

But there was a slight difference between the calculations and the measurements. as much as 0.1%. It doesn't seem like much, but it's an important difference. Especially in this size.

However, when we made the calculations by taking into account quantum electrodynamics and virtual particles, the difference did not disappear completely, but the calculations on the paper and the measurements were incredibly close to each other.

It was one of the most precise measurements humanity has ever made.

The problem was solved, the virtual particles were proven and this account was closed. We can think.

But.

Then a particle called a muon, a more massive particle we know as the electron's cousin.

This strange friend was going to cause some trouble.

Again, the measurements differed from those calculated on paper. They said we will solve it. They started an experiment called Muon g-2 about 5 years ago.

If you remember, this experiment was completed this year.

And.

The difference was beyond expectations.

There was something we overlooked.

Although the difference is not yet at the level to require a new law, it is very close. If this difference increases with new findings, it will mean that there is something in this foam, in this void, in the fabric of the universe, that we do not know and do not see.

Virtual particles will not eliminate the chaos in nothingness, of course, but it will show us the existence of other laws prevailing in the subatomic universe.

We will follow this together.

But the more you think about it, the more you think of quantum foam, the density of nothing, the more you look at the universe. It's both scary and exciting. It is both sad and happy.

While showing us how far we've come, it also proves that there is still a lot to learn.

That this building, where every scientist has had a brick throughout history, could rise much higher.

As I said in the Quantum Wave Function video. History will witness more names rise, completely destroy and rebuild our perception. There are many more bricks to be put into this building. Regardless of where you are from, what language you speak, and your cultural differences, the most meaningful collaborative work we can see is probably science. As enjoyable as it is to watch, I wish more people from us to be involved in this work.

Source: Bebar Science