Can a vacuum hide an energy source?

Energy is extremely important for human civilization and that is why we are in a constant search for a renewable fuel that does not destroy nature. For now, there are few options such as solar energy, wind energy, among others. But what if there was a type of energy that could be ‘mined’ from nothing? This is vacuum energy, but it cannot yet be ‘extracted’.

Vacuum is empty space that contains nothing but energy. According to quantum mechanics, The vacuum is filled with a type of energy called vacuum energy or zero-point energy.. Science explains that even though it is nothing physical, there will always be some amount of energy due to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle formulated by German physicist Werner Heisenberg in 1927.

Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle explains that although space is a space where nothing exists, it is never truly empty. Applied to this particular case, The principle suggests that there are always energy fluctuations in the quantum world that cause their own reactions, but they are too small for us to observe.

“You can’t get energy directly from a vacuum because there’s nothing there to give it. That was a real surprise.” “It’s a really amazing result that he discovered,” said William Unruh, a theoretical physicist at the University of British Columbia, about what people often think when they ask about the possibility of getting energy from a vacuum.

About twenty years ago, Japanese theoretical physicist Masahiro Hotta of Tohoku University suggested that perhaps vacuum energy could be obtained from “nothing.” But of course, this is not a feat that can be achieved “all of a sudden”; Scientists who examined the possibility Hotta proposed realized that it was possible, but not in the way they had originally imagined.

What is vacuum energy?

As Unruh explains in an article on his website: Quanta Magazinecame as a surprise to discover that zero-point energy could theoretically be channeled through the vacuum; the scientist collaborated with Hotta on the research. So what exactly is vacuum energy? First, we need to explain a bit about the content of quantum mechanics.

Every particle in the universe has a quantum field; that is, protons, photons, neutrons, and other particles each have their own quantum field. These fields are constantly fluctuating due to zero-point energy. Under certain conditions, these fluctuations can give rise to virtual particles that appear and disappear rapidly.

For example, consider a completely empty room. Even if all objects and dust particles were removed, there would still be small, invisible ripples in the environment, like ripples on a calm lake, due to the quantum energy in the vacuum.

So no place in the universe is actually a complete vacuum, at least not from the perspective of quantum physics.

“It’s really testing it. You’re actually teleporting. You’re extracting energy. The experimental papers are well done. I’m surprised no one has done this before,” said Seth, a quantum physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in an interview with Lloyd. Quanta Magazine.

Vacuum energy beaming

By better understanding Hotta’s experiment, scientists realized that the method developed could be used to teleport vacuum energy from one place to another, not to create the energy.

In 2022, another group of scientists managed to teleport energy between different points at microscopic distances without violating the fundamental laws of physics. The experiment showed that energy was actually teleported and that they were able to manipulate energy this way.

Hotta believes that vacuum energy teleportation experiments are extremely important for studying the subject. However, he notes that these experiments are quantum simulations and do not use the ground state of quantum fields spread throughout the universe. Therefore, it is necessary to continue to advance research to learn more about the region.

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