What is vacuum?

WSEAS Transactions on Applied and Theoretical Mechanics, Vol. 10, Art. #3, pp. 31-38, 2015

The vacuum field is considered as a force field, which consists of particles moving at speeds of the order of the speed of light, such as neutrinos, photons and charged cosmic rays. This distinguishes it from the classical static ether and some models of the quantum vacuum. In the presented model the occurrence of gravitational and electromagnetic force is substantiated, some vacuum field parameters are predicted, the sources that generate the vacuum field are suggested based on the theory of infinite nesting of matter.

Eprint Arxiv 1107 1799, 2011

Rising to Mach, the problem of establishing the unity of the physical essence of the Universe on all space-time scales of its evolution is, apparently, one of the main problems in contemporary epistemology. The issues are primarily related to the problems of the dynamics of the Universe, namely, the need to postulate hypothetical entities - dark energy and dark matter, whose nature is unknown, but whose contribution to the energy content of the Universe is about 95%. A "severe trial for the entire fundamental theory" turned out to be a discrepancy of 120 orders of magnitude between the experimentally established value of the cosmological constant and the calculated value of the energy density of the physical vacuum. Sharp questions arise also regarding the physical essence of gravitation and the nature of its unique smallness as compared with other interactions - nuclear ones, strong and weak, as well as electromagnetic ones. Sufficiently acute problems in the perception of the Universe as a single holistic system arise also at the level of microscales. First of all, we mean here the so called low-energy nuclear reactions, which are realized in the conditions of nonequilibrium low temperature plasma. The fundamental problems of such processes are usually not widely discussed, and many physicists are very critical of the very possibility of implementing such processes. Our main hypothesis for understanding the key problems of contemporary fundamental physics, including the indicated cosmological problems as well as a new class of electron-initiated nuclear chemical processes, is to introduce the basic reference system associated with the electromagnetic component of physical vacuum - EM vacuum of the expanding Universe, with a selection of global time t, being common for all points of the expanding Universe and measured starting from the time of t = 0, which corresponds to the Big Bang.

EPJ Web of Conferences, 2017

Are the standard laws of Physics really fundamental principles? Does the physical vacuum have a more primordial internal structure? Are quarks, leptons, gauge bosons... ultimate elementary objects? These three basic questions are actually closely related. If the deep vacuum structure and dynamics turn out to be less trivial than usually depicted, the conventional "elementary" particles will most likely be excitations of such a vacuum dynamics that remains by now unknown. We then expect relativity and quantum mechanics to be low-energy limits of a more fundamental dynamical pattern that generates them at a deeper level. It may even happen that vacuum drives the expansion of the Universe from its own inner dynamics. Inside such a vacuum structure, the speed of light would not be the critical speed for vacuum constituents and propagating signals. The natural scenario would be the superbradyon (superluminal preon) pattern we postulated in 1995, with a new critical speed c s much larger than the speed of light c just as c is much larger than the speed of sound. Superbradyons are assumed to be the bradyons of a super-relativity associated to c s (a Lorentz invariance with c s as the critical speed). Similarly, the standard relativistic space-time with four real coordinates would not necessarily hold beyond low-energy and comparatively local distance scales. Instead, the spinorial space-time (SST) with two complex coordinates we introduced in 1996-97 may be the suitable one to describe the internal structure of vacuum and standard "elementary" particles and, simultaneously, Cosmology at very large distance scales. If the constituents of the preonic vacuum are superluminal, quantum entanglement appears as a natural property provided c s c . The value of c s can even be possibly found experimentally by studying entanglement at large distances. It is not excluded that preonic constituents of vacuum can exist in our Universe as free particles ("free" superbradyons), in which case we expect them to be weakly coupled to standard matter. If a preonic vacuum is actually leading the basic dynamics of Particle Physics and Cosmology, and standard particles are vacuum excitations, the Gödel-Cohen incompleteness will apply to vacuum dynamics whereas the conventional laws of physics will actually be approximate and have error bars. We discuss here the possible role of the superbradyonic vacuum and of the SST in generating Quantum Mechanics, as well as the implications of such a dynamical origin of the conventional laws of Physics and possible evidences in experiments and observations. Black holes, gravitational waves, possible "free" superbradyons or preonic waves, unconventional vacuum radiation... are considered from this point of view paying particular attention to LIGO, VIRGO and CERN experiments.

Phronesis, 1982

Cosmology 2020 - The Current State [Working Title], 2020

The electromagnetic field ground state, a zero-energy vacuum component that issues naturally from Maxwell's theory and from the vector potential quantization at a single-photon level, overcomes the vacuum energy singularity in quantum electrodynamics which leads inevitably to the well-known "vacuum catastrophe" in cosmology. Photons/electromagnetic waves are oscillations of this vacuum field which is composed of a real electric potential permeating all of space. The Hawking-Unruh temperature for a particle accelerated in vacuum is readily obtained from the interaction with the electromagnetic field ground state. The elementary charge and the electron and proton mass are expressed precisely through the electromagnetic field ground state quantized amplitude entailing that photons, leptons/antileptons, and probably baryons/antibaryons originate from the same vacuum field. Fluctuations of the electromagnetic field ground state contribute to the cosmic electromagnetic background and may be at the origin of the dark energy which is considered to be responsible for the observed cosmic acceleration. Furthermore, the gravitational constant is also expressed through the electromagnetic field ground state quantized amplitude revealing the electromagnetic nature of gravity. The overall developments yield that the electromagnetic field ground state plays a primary role in gravitation and cosmology opening new perspectives for further investigations.

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), 2020

We show that the electromagnetic quantum vacuum derives directly from Maxwell's theory and plays a primary role in quantum electrodynamics, particle physics, gravitation and cosmology. It corresponds to the electromagnetic field ground state at zero frequency, a zero-energy cosmic field permeating all of space and having positive and negative components. The electromagnetic quantum vacuum is composed of real states, called kenons (vacuum). Photons are local oscillations of kenons guided by a nonlocal vector potential wave function with quantized amplitude. They propagate at the speed imposed by the vacuum electric permittivity 0  and magnetic permeability 0  , which are intrinsic properties of the

Physics of Atomic Nuclei

We have considered the possibility of formation a massless particles with spin 1 in the region of negative energies, within the framework of the Weyl type equation for neutrinos. It is proved that, unlike quantum electrodynamics, the developed approach allows in the ground state the formation of such stable particles. The structure and properties of this vector-boson are studied in detail. The problem of entangling two vector bosons with projections of spins +1 and-1 and, accordingly, the formation of a zero-spin boson is studied within the framework of a complex stochastic equation of the Langevin type. The paper discusses the structure of the Bose particle of a scalar field and the space-time's properties of an empty space (quantum vacuum).

Applied Physics B, 2010

In the classical theory of electromagnetism, the permittivity ε0 and the permeability µ0 of free space are constants whose magnitudes do not seem to possess any deeper physical meaning. By replacing the free space of classical physics with the quantum notion of the vacuum, we speculate that the values of the aforementioned constants could arise from the polarization and magnetization of virtual pairs in vacuum. A classical dispersion model with parameters determined by quantum and particle physics is employed to estimate their values. We find the correct orders of magnitude. Additionally, our simple assumptions yield an independent estimate for the number of charged elementary particles based on the known values of ε0 and µ0 and for the volume of a virtual pair. Such interpretation would provide an intriguing connection between the celebrated theory of classical electromagnetism and the quantum theory in the weak field limit.

EPJ Web of Conferences, 2016

Is Quantum Mechanics really and ultimate principle of Physics described by a set of intrinsic exact laws? Are standard particles the ultimate constituents of matter? The two questions appear to be closely related, as a preonic structure of the physical vacuum would have an influence on the properties of quantum particles. Although the first preon models were just « quark-like » and assumed preons to be direct constituents of the conventional « elementary » particles, we suggested in 1995 that preons could instead be constituents of the physical vacuum (the superbradyon hypothesis). Standard particles would then be excitations of the preonic vacuum and have substantially different properties from those of preons themselves (critical speed...). The standard laws of Particle Physics would be approximate expressions generated from basic preon dynamics. In parallel, the mathematical properties of space-time structures such as the spinoral space-time (SST) we introduced in 1996-97 can have strong implications for Quantum Mechanics and even be its real origin. We complete here our recent discussion of the subject by pointing out that: i) Quantum Mechanics corresponds to a natural set of properties of vacuum excitations in the presence of a SST geometry ; ii) the recently observed entanglement at long distances would be a logical property if preons are superluminal (superbradyons), so that superluminal signals and correlations can propagate in vacuum ; iii) in a specific description, the function of space-time associated to the extended internal structure of a spin-1/2 particle at very small distances may be incompatible with a continuous motion at space and time scales where the internal structure of vacuum can be felt. In the dynamics associated to iii), and using the SST approach to space-time, a contradiction can appear between macroscopic and microscopic space-times due to an overlap in the time variable directly related to the fact that a spinorial function takes nonzero values simultaneously in a whole time interval. Then, continuous motion can be precluded at very small spacetime scales. If discrete motion is required at such scales, the situation will possibly be close to that generating the Feynman path integral. More generally, Quantum Mechanics can naturally emerge from the spinorial space-time and from other unconventional spacetime structures in a fundamental preon dynamics governing the properties of vacuum. In such scenarios, the application of Gödel -Cohen mathematics to quantum-mechanical calculations can possibly yield substantially different results from those recently obtained using the standard quantum approach without any preonic underlying structure. This is also a crucial open question for Quantum Mechanics and Particle Physics. T his paper is dedicated to the memory o f Bernard d Espagnat

2000

The structured vacuum theory, 2023

The novel physical model sheds light on the matter spatiotemporal organization of the universe. It makes an attempt to create a basis for revealing the hidden mechanisms underlying all the laws of modern physics. In addition to explaining mechanisms of well-known phenomena, the model claims to explain the origin of such basic phenomena as inertial and gravitational masses, electrical charge and magnetic moment. The model may be briefly summarized in the following conclusions:

2009

Contemporary physics faces three great riddles that lie at the intersection of quantum theory, particle physics and cosmology. They are 1. The expansion of the universe is accelerating -an extra factor of two appears in the size.

Annals of Physics, 1983

Casimir energies are calculated for quantized fields in cavities with a variety of forms. Consequences for models of the vacuum state are considered. The possibility of negative mass systems is discussed. Results on energy and entropy of finite quantum systems at non-zero temperature are given.

2008

The main fundamental principles characterizing the vacuum field structure are formulated, the modeling of the related vacuum medium and charged point particle dynamics by means of devised field theoretic tools are analyzed. The Maxwell electrodynamic theory is revisited and newly derived from the suggested vacuum field structure principles, the classical special relativity theory relationship between the energy and the corresponding point particle mass is revisited and newly obtained. The Lorentz force expression with respect to arbitrary non-inertial reference frames is revisited and discussed in detail, some new interpretations of relations between the special relativity theory and quantum mechanics are presented. The famous quantum-mechanical Schrödinger type equations for a relativistic point particle in the external potential and magnetic fields within the quasiclassical approximation as the Planck constant ħ→ 0 and the light velocity c→∞ are obtained.

Theoretical and Mathematical Physics, 2009

The authors dedicate this article to one of the mathematical and physical giants of the XX-th centuryacademician Prof. Nikolai N. Bogolubov in memory of his 100th Birthday with great appreciation to his brilliant talent and impressive impact to modern nonlinear mathematics and quantum physics