False Vacuums and Electrons

[foodchain]

Does the concepts behind a false vacuum apply to the behavior of electrons in attempting to achieve the lowest possible energy state?

[swansont]

Define "false vacuum"

[foodchain]

A false vacuum is a possible reality spawned by the study of QM that is analogous to quantum tunneling?

[swansont]

That doesn't really make any sense to me. How does studying QM spawn a "possible reality?"

[Spyman]

In physics, the zero-point energy is the lowest possible energy that a quantum mechanical physical system may possess and is the energy of the ground state of the system.

In quantum field theory, it is a synonym for the vacuum energy, an amount of energy associated with the vacuum of empty space.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-point_energy

 

In quantum field theory, the zero-point field is the lowest energy state of a field, i.e. its ground state, which is non zero. This phenomenon gives the quantum vacuum a complex structure, which can be probed experimentally; see, for example, the Casimir effect. The term "zero-point field" is sometimes used as a synonym for the vacuum state of an individual quantized field. The electromagnetic zero-point field is loosely considered as a sea of background electromagnetic energy that fills the vacuum of space, and is often regarded merely as a curious outcome of the quantum mechanical requirement, namely the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, that the lowest allowable energy level in a harmonic oscillator mode is not zero but ħw/2, where w is the characteristic frequency of the oscillator.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-point_field

 

Vacuum energy is an underlying background energy that exists in space even when devoid of matter (known as free space). The vacuum energy results in the existence of most (if not all) of the fundamental forces - and thus in all effects involving these forces, too. It is observed in various experiments (like the spontaneous emission of light or gamma radiation, the Casimir effect, Van-Der Waals bonds, the Lamb shift, etc); and it is thought (but not yet demonstrated) to have consequences for the behavior of the Universe on cosmological scales.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_energy

[foodchain]

In reply my definition was a bit shabby but I don’t have the vocab of a physicist. Instead of spawned I guess a better term should have gone something like "lead to the idea by some people"?

 

As for the spymans post, thanks I think I got the message in the second paragraph. I thought that they kept tunneling and vacuum apart for the scales involved is all, thus separate terms.

[Severian]

The expression 'false vacuum' usually is referring to a local minimum of a potential rather than a global one. By that, I mean it is a physical situation where the universe (or physical system) is in a state which is not the lowest energy state, but is stable to small fluctuations. So for example, there could be a potential barrier between the local minimum and the true global lowest energy state.

 

Lately there has been interest in models where the universe is actually supersymmetric, with a lowest energy state (vacuum) which is at zero energy, but which also has other local minima separated from the true vacuum by potential barriers. The maths of supersymmetry is such that these 'false vacua' would exhibit broken supersymmetry, and many believe that this is the state we are sitting in.

 

If this is true, then every second there is a finite, non-zero probability that our quantum state will tunnel through the barrier to the true vacuum and the world as we know it will end. Fortunately, since the universe has survived for 13.7 billion years already, this probability must be very small.

[Farsight]

Does the concepts behind a false vacuum apply to the behavior of electrons in attempting to achieve the lowest possible energy state?

 

No.

 

The "false vacuum" is a hypothesis that makes no verifiable prediction and cannot be proven. Personally I think there are major issues with the concept but let's leave that to one side.

 

Saying that electrons attempt to achieve the lowest possible energy state is potentially confusing. They don't attempt anything, and the statement applies to an electron atomic orbital. But then again, it applies to any system. That's how things work. Energy tends to spread.

[foodchain]

The expression 'false vacuum' usually is referring to a local minimum of a potential rather than a global one. By that, I mean it is a physical situation where the universe (or physical system) is in a state which is not the lowest energy state, but is stable to small fluctuations. So for example, there could be a potential barrier between the local minimum and the true global lowest energy state.

 

Lately there has been interest in models where the universe is actually supersymmetric, with a lowest energy state (vacuum) which is at zero energy, but which also has other local minima separated from the true vacuum by potential barriers. The maths of supersymmetry is such that these 'false vacua' would exhibit broken supersymmetry, and many believe that this is the state we are sitting in.

 

If this is true, then every second there is a finite, non-zero probability that our quantum state will tunnel through the barrier to the true vacuum and the world as we know it will end. Fortunately, since the universe has survived for 13.7 billion years already, this probability must be very small.

 

As you state such could such be part of the phenomena of behavior of larger bodies in the universe, such as moment of galaxies?

 

No.

 

The "false vacuum" is a hypothesis that makes no verifiable prediction and cannot be proven. Personally I think there are major issues with the concept but let's leave that to one side.

 

Saying that electrons attempt to achieve the lowest possible energy state is potentially confusing. They don't attempt anything, and the statement applies to an electron atomic orbital. But then again, it applies to any system. That's how things work. Energy tends to spread.

 

Right but the energy spreading out certainly cannot be all of it or else how would hydrogen ever become something more then itself or for itself not to simply fizz out?