Quantcast
  • Register
PhysicsOverflow is a next-generation academic platform for physicists and astronomers, including a community peer review system and a postgraduate-level discussion forum analogous to MathOverflow.

Welcome to PhysicsOverflow! PhysicsOverflow is an open platform for community peer review and graduate-level Physics discussion.

Please help promote PhysicsOverflow ads elsewhere if you like it.

News

PO is now at the Physics Department of Bielefeld University!

New printer friendly PO pages!

Migration to Bielefeld University was successful!

Please vote for this year's PhysicsOverflow ads!

Please do help out in categorising submissions. Submit a paper to PhysicsOverflow!

... see more

Tools for paper authors

Submit paper
Claim Paper Authorship

Tools for SE users

Search User
Reclaim SE Account
Request Account Merger
Nativise imported posts
Claim post (deleted users)
Import SE post

Users whose questions have been imported from Physics Stack Exchange, Theoretical Physics Stack Exchange, or any other Stack Exchange site are kindly requested to reclaim their account and not to register as a new user.

Public \(\beta\) tools

Report a bug with a feature
Request a new functionality
404 page design
Send feedback

Attributions

(propose a free ad)

Site Statistics

206 submissions , 164 unreviewed
5,103 questions , 2,249 unanswered
5,355 answers , 22,798 comments
1,470 users with positive rep
820 active unimported users
More ...

  Does vacuum displacement field imply space filled with Planck particle/antiparticle pairs?

+ 0 like - 0 dislike
911 views

Consider natural [Gaussian units][1] such that $\hbar=c=1$ and the electron charge $e=\sqrt{\alpha}$ where $\alpha\approx1/137$ is the fine structure constant.

In Gaussian units the vacuum displacement field $\vec{D}$ is identical to the applied electric field $\vec{E}$ so that
$$\vec{D}=\vec{E}.\tag{1}$$
Let us assume that in each small volume of space, $L^3$, there are charges $+q$ and $-q$ both with a mass $M$.

The vacuum displacement field, which is the vacuum polarization per unit volume, is given by
$$\vec{D}=q\times\frac{q\vec{E}}{M}\cdot T^2\times\frac{1}{L^3},\tag{2}$$
where the middle term is the separation distance of each pair of charges due to their acceleration in the electric field $\vec{E}$ during time $T$.

According to the quantum uncertainty principle in natural units $T = L = 1/M$ so that we find
$$\vec{D}=q^2\vec{E}.\tag{3}$$
Thus it seems that there must be masses $M$ with charges $q=+1,-1$ at each point in space in order to satisfy Eqn.$(1)$. The charge $q$ is $e/\sqrt{\alpha}=11.7e$.

Could the masses $M$ at each point in space be Planck masses with dimensions given by the Planck length $10^{-33}$ cm?

The Planck masses could have the fundamental charge $e$ if at the Planck energy the electromagnetic force is unified with the other forces so that $e=\sqrt{\alpha}=1$.

The pairs of Planck masses can be generated by positive-energy zero point modes with wavelengths down to the Planck length. If the Planck masses consist of matter and antimatter then according to the [Feynman-Stueckelberg interpretation][2] the antimatter can be considered as having negative mass. Thus the combined gravitational mass of each pair is zero so that space can remain flat.


  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaussian_units
  [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiparticle#Feynman%E2%80%93Stueckelberg_interpretation

asked Sep 18, 2022 in Theoretical Physics by John [ revision history ]
edited Sep 22, 2022

Your answer

Please use answers only to (at least partly) answer questions. To comment, discuss, or ask for clarification, leave a comment instead.
To mask links under text, please type your text, highlight it, and click the "link" button. You can then enter your link URL.
Please consult the FAQ for as to how to format your post.
This is the answer box; if you want to write a comment instead, please use the 'add comment' button.
Live preview (may slow down editor)   Preview
Your name to display (optional):
Privacy: Your email address will only be used for sending these notifications.
Anti-spam verification:
If you are a human please identify the position of the character covered by the symbol $\varnothing$ in the following word:
p$\hbar\varnothing$sicsOverflow
Then drag the red bullet below over the corresponding character of our banner. When you drop it there, the bullet changes to green (on slow internet connections after a few seconds).
Please complete the anti-spam verification




user contributions licensed under cc by-sa 3.0 with attribution required

Your rights
...