Related papers: The Localized Quantum Vacuum Field
Zero-point energy is generally known to be unphysical. Casimir effect, however, is often presented as a counterexample, giving rise to a conceptual confusion. To resolve the confusion we study foundational aspects of Casimir effect at a…
We discuss phenomenology of quantum vacuum. Phenomenology of macroscopic systems has three sources: thermodynamics, topology and symmetry. Momentum space topology determines the universality classes of fermionic vacua. The vacuum in its…
The extreme electromagnetic or gravitational fields associated with some astrophysical objects can give rise to macroscopic effects arising from the physics of the quantum vacuum. Therefore, these objects are incredible laboratories for…
We present a manifestly local, diffeomorphism invariant and locally Poincare invariant formulation of vacuum energy sequestering. In this theory, quantum vacuum energy generated by matter loops is cancelled by auxiliary fields. The…
We reconsider the recently proposed nonlinear QED effect of quantum reflection of photons off an inhomogeneous strong-field region. We present new results for strong fields varying both in space and time. While such configurations can give…
Momentum transfer between matter and electromagnetic field is analyzed. The related equations of motion and conservation laws are derived using relativistic formalism. Their correspondence to various, at first sight self-contradicting,…
A formulation of quantum electrodynamics is proposed, in which the local law of conservation of electric charge serves as the source of the gauge condition. The equations of motion of the gauge variable and the density of the charge…
In this work we suggest, without detailed mathematical analysis, a hypothesis on the physical meaning of cosmological constant. It is primarily based on a conceptual analogy with energy characteristics of the crystal lattice structure, i.e.…
The physics of quantum electromagnetism in an absorbing medium is that of a field of damped harmonic oscillators. Yet until recently the damped harmonic oscillator was not treated with the same kind of formalism used to describe quantum…
One might expect far away from physical black holes that quantum field quantisation performed in Minkowski space is a good approximation. Indeed, all experimental tests in particle colliders reveal no deviations so far. Nevertheless, the…
We introduce a special class of bimetric theories of quantized fields with preserved classical energy conditions. More precisely, we describe the missing anti-particles in our visible universe as being trapped in a spacetime patch with…
The Lamb shift, an energy shift arising from the presence of the electromagnetic vacuum, has been observed in various quantum systems and established as the part of the energy shift independent of the environmental photon number. However,…
The quantum vacuum fundamentally alters the properties of embedded particles. In contrast to classical empty space, it allows for creation and annihilation of excitations. For trapped particles this leads to a change in the energy spectrum,…
A fundamental prediction of quantum mechanics is that there are random fluctuations everywhere in a vacuum because of the zero-point energy. Remarkably, quantum electromagnetic fluctuations can induce a measurable force between neutral…
The theory of quantum fields propagating on an isotropic cosmological quantum spacetime is reexamined by generalizing the scalar test field to an electromagnetic (EM) vector field. For any given polarization of the EM field on the classical…
We introduce a new model for dark energy in the universe in which a small cosmological constant is generated by ordinary electromagnetic vacuum energy. The corresponding virtual photons exist at all frequencies but switch from a…
In 1+3 (threading) formulation of general relativity spacetime behaves analogous to a medium with a specific index of refraction with respect to the light propagation. Accepting the reality of zero point energy, through the equivalence…
In addition to the two standard solutions of the quantum field equations having the form e^{+/-(iwt-ikx)}, there exist two additional solutions of the form e^{+/-(iwt+ikx). By incorporating these latter solutions, deemed "supplemental…
This article aims at discussing the cosmological constant problem at a pedagogical but fully technical level. We review how the vacuum energy can be regularized in flat and curved space-time and how it can be understood in terms of Feynman…
We discuss here phase transitions in quantum field theory in the context of vacuum realignment through an explicit construction. Vacuum destabilisation may occur through a scalar attaining a nonzero expectation value, or through a…