I just love these Physics guys at
Caltech. There's no
one else who can do such a great job of accentuating the utter strangeness
of the physical universe that pervades our existence. As well as the
wrongness of the way we've always viewed the universe around us. I
ripped off/paraphrased most of this article from them.
According to quantum-mechanical theory, elementary particles are buffeted
by zero-point fluctuations of the electromagnetic quantum vacuum. This causes
them to exhibit a rapidly jittering motion which Ernest Schroedinger (an early
quantum mechanics pioneer) named zitterbewegung. It’s postulated that a
tiny bit of the quantum vacuum energy – that is, the energy inherent in the
vacuum itself -- is diverted into the kinetic energy needed to cause this
zitterbewegung motion.
That pure vacuum has energy is a known and experimentally proven fact.
(Unfortunately, "tapping into" it for practical purposes poses some technical
problems that have not yet been completely solved.) "Virtual" particle pairs
are continuously created within the vacuum. Normally, they rejoin and
self-destruct an instant later. However, the instantaneous expression of these
specks of energy affects other particles if they happen to reside in the same
location.
In principle, this phenomenon could be the origin of particle behavior that
has hitherto been described by the equivalence E=mc2. If true,
there need not be any physically distinct "mc2" to account for the
"E". The only physically real thing would be the energy, E, associated with
the zitterbewegung of the particle. In this view, there is no need for
any magical, mysterious conversion of mass into energy and vice versa. One
ought to think of a particle as a localized concentration of zero-point energy
which gravitates and resists acceleration. No traditional "mass" term is
needed to explain this.
The Casimir force
acting between parallel plates is a real, macroscopic effect. It was first
postulated in 1948 by Dutch physicist Hendrick Casimir and experimentally
proven 10 years later. It has since been measured to a precision of about one
percent and is now beginning to be developed as a source of mechanical action
in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices. The Casimir force is an
outcome of the electromagnetic fluctuations that constitute the quantum
vacuum. Moreover, the force can be easily calculated by assuming (1) that
there is a real underlying sea of zero-point energy in the form of a
zero-point field, and (2) that certain wave-modes of the field are excluded in
the region between the plates. This exclusion results in an attractive force
between the plates. Thus, whether you believe that the zero-point field is
"real" or simply "virtual", calculations assuming it to be real result in the
accurate prediction of the very real Casimir force.
This approach can also be used to explain the phenomenon of inertia. Since
its original conception by Galileo, the concept of inertia has never been
satisfactorily derived from more basic physical principles, and so it has
always been accepted as an unexplained, "inherent" component of any
mass-containing object – in other words, a "gremlin". Why does an object
resist a change in movement or direction? If the electromagnetic quantum
vacuum is represented as a zero-point field, stochastic electrodynamics
predicts the existence of a zero-point energy flow in accelerated reference
frames. This has been termed the "Rindler flux". Now physically, the Rindler
flux must consist of virtual photons. Yet if we allow this virtual flow of
energy to interact with matter in a manner analogous to the Casimir force
interaction, we also arrive at a force: a reaction force with the
"proportional to acceleration" characteristic that is the hallmark of inertia.
The greater the number of fundamental particles in a given volume of space,
the greater the energy deficit of the electromagnetic quantum vacuum (since
more of it is diverted into zitterbewegung). This creates an asymmetry
in the energy-momentum flow of the zero-point fluctuations. Such an asymmetry
would be perceived as a Rindler flux by a stationary observer. What we think
of as active gravitational mass would be a consequence of massless particle
zitterbewegung giving rise to a Rindler flux. In other words, a Newtonian
gravitational field or a general relativistic curvature of spacetime
previously explained by the existence of "mass" is, in actuality, merely a
manifestation of a quantum vacuum energy asymmetry.
To recap: There is no mass in the Universe, only energy. Pretty cool
stuff, huh?
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