Create light from a vacuum

Swedish scientists have realized the idea from 40 years ago - creating light from a vacuum.

The experiment is based on the counterintuitive principle - one of the most important principles in quantum mechanics: the vacuum is nothing . In fact, the vacuum is filled with all kinds of molecules that exist and disappear continuously. They appear, exist for a short time and then disappear again. This property makes them often considered virtual particles.

For the first time, scientists created light from a vacuum. (Photo: Physorg)

Scientist Christopher Wilson of Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden) and his colleagues succeeded in bringing photons from a virtual state into a real state, creating visible light. Moore, a physicist, has anticipated this since 1970, that if virtual photons are given around a rapidly moving mirror at the speed of light. This phenomenon, called the dynamical Casimir effect, was first observed by excellent experiments by Chalmers scientists.

'To make the mirror move extremely fast is impossible, so we developed another method that also gave the same effect. Instead of transforming the physical distance to a mirror, we changed the electrical distance to a short circuit that acts as a mirror for microwaves , 'explained Per Delsing, professor of experimental physics.

The 'mirror' has quantum electricity, which is extremely sensitive to magnetic fields. By redirecting from the field billions of times per second, scientists can make it move at a rate equal to 25% of the speed of light.

'As a result, photons appear in pairs, so we can measure them as microwave radiation , ' Per Delsing said.

During the experiment, the 'mirror' transferred some of the kinetic energy to virtual photons to help them appear. According to quantum dynamics, there are many types of virtual particles in a vacuum. According to Associate Professor of Physics Göran Johansson, the reason that photons appear in experiments is because they lack mass.

Relatively little energy is needed to turn particles in a vacuum out of the virtual state. In principle, it is possible to create many other types of particles from a vacuum, such as electrons or protons, but need a lot of energy.

Finding photons that appear in pairs in the experiment can be used in the field of quantum information, such as developing quantum computers.

However, the main value of this experiment is to improve understanding of basic physics concepts. Many argue that fluctuations in the vacuum environment are linked to 'dark energy' - controlling the expansion of the universe.