First real evidence of a strange quantum distortion in empty space

Re:First real evidence of a strange quantum distortion in em... by fspeech on Friday December 02, 2016 @11:59AM (#13090241)

I see by "first" they meant the first evidence of vacuum birefringence. Quantum vacuum fluctuation is by itself well established. E.g., Casimir effect.

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Re:First real evidence of a strange quantum distortion in em... by tfgg on Friday December 02, 2016 @12:21PM (#13090445)

The Casimir effect, contrary to popular understanding, doesn't require reference to vacuum zero point energy, it's a relativistic quantum effect: http://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.72.021...

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Re:First real evidence of a strange quantum distortion in em... by fspeech on Friday December 02, 2016 @08:14PM (#13093643)

Thanks for the reference. Just to be clear, his point is made with regard to the reality of vacuum zero point energy, esp. whether it should affect the cosmological constant. However quantum vacuum fluctuation (which I read as meaning the virtual particles) is essential to QED whether zero point energy is real or not. As far as I can tell, quantum birefringence also does not refer to the zero point energy.

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