Related papers: Quantum vacuum fluctuations
We present an extension of quantum field theory to the case when the spacetime topology fluctuates (spacetime foam). In this extension the number of bosonic fields becomes a variable and the ground state is characterized by a finite…
The Casimir effect is a physical manifestation of zero point energy of quantum vacuum. In a relativistic quantum field theory, Poincar\'e symmetry of the theory seems, at first sight, to imply that non-zero vacuum energy is inconsistent…
Fluctuations are ubiquitous in nature. They are one of the fundamental building blocks of quantum mechanics and are responsible for a wide variety of phenomena in many areas of physics, ranging from biology to cosmology. Far from any…
Quantum vacuum fluctuations are a direct manifestation of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. The dynamical Casimir effect allows for the observation of these vacuum fluctuations by turning them into real, observable photons. However, the…
In this short paper we make use of the recent covariant extension of the generalised uncertainty principle to study the corrections to the vacuum energy of the simplest scalar quantum field theory. We then calculate the modifications to the…
It is argued that the zero-point energies of free quantum fields diverge at most quadratically and not quartically, as is generally believed. This is a consequence of the relativistic invariance which requires that the energy density of the…
The actual value of the quantum vacuum energy density is generally regarded as irrelevant in non-gravitational physics. However, this paper gives a non-gravitational system where this value does have physical significance. The system is a…
We discuss the limits of validity of the semiclassical theory of gravity in which a classical metric is coupled to the expectation value of the stress tensor. It is argued that this theory is a good approximation only when the fluctuations…
There has been a growing interest in non-Hermitian quantum mechanics. The key concepts of quantum mechanics are quantum fluctuations. Quantum fluctuations of quantum fields confined in a finite-size system induce the zero-point energy…
A mirror in vacuum is coupled to fluctuating quantum fields. As a result, its energy-momentum and mass fluctuate. We compute the correlation spectra of force and mass fluctuations for a mirror at rest in vacuum (of a scalar field in a…
Quantum gravity is quite elusive at the experimental level; thus a lot of interest has been raised by recent searches for quantum gravity effects in the propagation of light from distant sources, like gamma ray bursters and active galactic…
In this talk I review various developments in the past year concerning quantum vacuum energy, the Casimir effect. In particular, there has been continuing controversy surrounding the temperature correction to the Lifshitz formula for the…
This work contributes to the study of non-equilibrium aspects of the Casimir forces with the introduction of squeezed states in the calculations. Throughout this article two main results can be found, being both strongly correlated.…
Quantum gravity places entirely new challenges on the formulation of a consistent theory as well as on an extraction of potentially observable effects. Quantum corrections due to the gravitational field are commonly expected to be tiny…
Quantum fluctuations in vacuum can exert a dissipative force on moving objects, which is known as Casimir friction. Especially, a rotating particle in the vacuum will eventually slow down due to the dissipative Casimir friction. Here, we…
This article traces the development of fluctuation theory and its deep connection to irreversibility, from equilibrium to near-equilibrium, and finally to far-from-equilibrium systems. Classical fluctuation theorems, which capture the…
Quantum gravitational effects in loop quantum cosmology lead to a resolution of the initial singularity and have the potential to solve the horizon problem and generate a quasi scale-invariant spectrum of density fluctuations. We consider…
We calculate the gravitational self-energy of vacuum quantum field fluctuations using a Casimir approach. We find that the Casimir gravitational self-energy density can account for the measured dark energy density when the SUSY-breaking…
Electromagnetic vacuum fluctuations have observable consequences, like the Casimir force between mirrors in vacuum. This force is now measured with good accuracy and agreement with theory when the effect of imperfect reflection of mirrors…
The condensed matter examples, in which the effective gravity appears in the low-energy corner as one of the collective modes of quantum vacuum, provide a possible answer to the question, why the vacuum energy is so small. This answer comes…