Search Results (31)

A review of recent advances in spacetime optics is given, with special emphasis on time refraction. This is a basic optical process, occurring at a temporal discontinuity or temporal boundary, which is able to produce various different effects, such as frequency shifts, energy amplification, time reflection, and photon emission. If, instead of a single discontinuity, we have two reverse temporal boundaries, we can form a temporal beam splitter, where temporal interferences can occur. It will also be shown that, in the presence of an axis of symmetry, such as a magnetic field, the temporal beam splitter can induce a rotation of the initial polarization state, similar to a Faraday rotation. Recent work on time crystals, superluminal fronts, and superfluid light will be reviewed. Time gates based on spacetime optical effects will be discussed. We also mention recent work on optical metamaterials. Finally, the quantum properties of time refraction, which imply the emission of photon from vacuum, are considered, while similar problems in high-energy QED associated with electron–positron pairs are briefly mentioned. Full article

Fluctuations are omnipresent; they exist in any matter, due either to its quantum nature or to its nonzero temperature. In the current review, we briefly cover the quantum electrodynamic Casimir (QED) force as well as the critical Casimir (CC) and Helmholtz (HF) forces. In the QED case, the medium is usually a vacuum and the massless excitations are photons, while in the CC and HF cases the medium is usually a critical or correlated fluid and the fluctuations of the order parameter are the cause of the force between the macroscopic or mesoscopic bodies immersed in it. We discuss the importance of the presented results for nanotechnology, especially for devising and assembling micro- or nano-scale systems. Several important problems for nanotechnology following from the currently available experimental findings are spelled out, and possible strategies for overcoming them are sketched. Regarding the example of HF, we explicitly demonstrate that when a given integral quantity characterizing the fluid is conserved, it has an essential influence on the behavior of the corresponding fluctuation-induced force. Full article

This paper considers the scattering of a probe laser pulse by an intense light spring in a QED vacuum. This new scattering configuration can be seen as the vacuum equivalent to the process originally associated with the scattering of light by a rotating black hole, which is usually called Penrose superradiance. Here, the rotating object is an intense laser beam containing two different components of orbital angular momentum. Due to these two components having slightly different frequencies, the energy profile of the intense laser beam rotates with an angular velocity that depends on the frequency difference. The nonlinear properties of a quantum vacuum are described by a first-order Euler–Heisenberg Lagrangian. It is shown that in such a configuration, nonlinear photon–photon coupling leads to scattered radiation with frequency shift and angular dispersion. These two distinct properties, of frequency and propagation direction, could eventually be favorable for possible experimental observations. In principle, this new scattering configuration can also be reproduced in a nonlinear optical medium. Full article

In this paper we would like to highlight the problems of conceiving the “Hydrogen Bond” (HB) as a real short-range, directional, electrostatic, attractive interaction and to reframe its nature through the non-approximated view of condensed matter offered by a Quantum Electro-Dynamic (QED) perspective. We focus our attention on water, as the paramount case to show the effectiveness of this 40-year-old theoretical background, which represents water as a two-fluid system (where one of the two phases is coherent). The HB turns out to be the result of the electromagnetic field gradient in the coherent phase of water, whose vacuum level is lower than in the non-coherent (gas-like) fraction. In this way, the HB can be properly considered, i.e., no longer as a “dipolar force” between molecules, but as the phenomenological effect of their collective thermodynamic tendency to occupy a lower ground state, compatible with temperature and pressure. This perspective allows to explain many “anomalous” behaviours of water and to understand why the calculated energy associated with the HB should change when considering two molecules (water-dimer), or the liquid state, or the different types of ice. The appearance of a condensed, liquid, phase at room temperature is indeed the consequence of the boson condensation as described in the context of spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB). For a more realistic and authentic description of water, condensed matter and living systems, the transition from a still semi-classical Quantum Mechanical (QM) view in the first quantization to a Quantum Field Theory (QFT) view embedded in the second quantization is advocated. Full article

We consider a scalar QED (quantum electrodynamics) model for the frictional force and the momentum fluctuations of a polarizable particle in thermal equilibrium with radiation or in hyperbolic motion in a vacuum. In the former case the loss of particle kinetic energy due to the frictional force is compensated by the increase in kinetic energy associated with the momentum diffusion, resulting in the Planck distribution when it is assumed that the average kinetic energy satisfies the equipartition theorem. For hyperbolic motion in vacuum the frictional force and the momentum diffusion are similarly consistent with an equilibrium with a Planckian distribution at the temperature $T=\hslash a/2\pi k_{B}c$. The quantum fluctuations of the momentum imply that it is only the average acceleration a that is constant when the particle is subject to a constant applied force. Full article

The launch of the IXPE telescope in late 2021 finally made polarization measurements in the 2–$8\mathrm{keV}$ band a reality, more than 40 years after the pioneering observations of the OSO-8 satellite. In the first two years of operations, IXPE targeted more than 60 sources, including four magnetars, neutron stars with magnetic fields in the petaGauss range. In this paper we summarize the IXPE main findings and discuss their implications for the physics of ultra-magnetized neutron stars. Polarimetric observations confirmed theoretical predictions, according to which X-ray radiation from magnetar sources is highly polarized, up to ≈$80\%$, the highest value detected so far. This provides an independent confirmation that magnetars are indeed endowed with a super-strong magnetic field and that the twisted magnetosphere scenario is the most likely explanation for their soft X-ray emission. Polarization measurements allowed us to probe the physical conditions of the star’s outermost layers, showing that the cooler surface regions are in a condensed state, with no atmosphere on top. Although no smoking-gun of vacuum QED effects was found, the phase-dependent behavior of the polarization angle strongly hints that vacuum birefringence is indeed at work in magnetar magnetospheres. Full article

The Lamb shift, one of the most fundamental interactions in atomic physics, arises from the interaction of H atoms with the electromagnetic fluctuations of the quantum vacuum. The energy shift has been computed in a variety of ways. The energy shift, as Feynman, Power, and Milonni demonstrated, equals the change in the vacuum energy in the volume containing the H atoms due to the change in the index of refraction arising from the presence of the H atoms. Using this result and a group theoretical calculation of the contribution to the Lamb shift from each frequency of the vacuum fluctuations, in this paper we obtain an expression for the region of the vacuum energy for each frequency $\omega$ around the H atom due to the Lamb shift. This same field plays an essential role in the van der Waals force. We show the ground state atom is surrounded by a region of positive vacuum energy that extends well beyond the atom for low frequencies. This region can be described as a steady state cloud of vacuum fluctuations. For energies $E=\hslash \omega$ less than 1 eV, where ℏ is the reduced Planck constant and $\omega$ is frequency, the radius of the positive energy region is shown to be approximately 14.4/E Å. For a vacuum fluctuation of wavelength, $\lambda$, the radius is $(\alpha /2\pi )\lambda$, where $\alpha$ is the fine-structure constant. Thus, for long wavelengths, the region has macroscopic dimensions. The energy–time uncertainty relation predicts a maximum possible radius that is larger than the radius based on the radiative shift calculations by a factor of $1/4\alpha$. Full article

We consider a consistent with gravity electron based on the overrotating Kerr-Newman (KH) solution and show that the earlier KH electron models proposed by Carter, Israel and López in 1970–1990 should be modified by the Landau-Ginzburg theory, leading to a superconducting electron model consistent with gravity and quantum theory. Truncated by Israel and López, the second sheet of the KN solution is rearranged and represented in a mirror form as a sheet of the positron, so that the modified KN system forms a quantum electron-positron vacuum interacting with gravity. Regularization of the KN black hole solution creates two new important effects leading to a strong gravitational interaction that acts on the Compton scale contrary to the usual Planck scale of Schwarzschild gravity: (A)—gravitational frame-dragging creates two Wilson loops acting at two boundaries of the modified KN solution, and (B)—formation of the flat superconducting core of the regularized KN solution creates a superconducting electron-positron vacuum state. The Landau-Ginzburg model shows that Wilson loops determine phases of two Higgs fields forming superconducting vacuum state of the modified KN solution, quantum vacuum of the electron-positron pairs. The phases of these Higgs fields correspond to two light-like modes of a classical relativistic ring string. We come to the conclusion that the electron models considered by Israel and López are not complete and must be supplemented by a mirror structure that forms a quantum system consistent with QED. Full article

We review the distortions of spectra of relic neutrinos due to the interactions with electrons, positrons, and neutrinos in the early universe. We solve integro-differential kinetic equations for the neutrino density matrix, including vacuum three-flavor neutrino oscillations, oscillations in electron and positron background, a collision term and finite temperature corrections to electron mass and electromagnetic plasma up to the next-to-leading order $\mathcal{O}\left(e^3\right)$. After that, we estimate the effects of the spectral distortions in neutrino decoupling on the number density and energy density of the Cosmic Neutrino Background (C$\nu$B) in the current universe, and discuss the implications of these effects on the capture rates in direct detection of the C$\nu$B on tritium, with emphasis on the PTOLEMY-type experiment. In addition, we find a precise value of the effective number of neutrinos, $N_{\mathrm{eff}}=3.044$. However, QED corrections to weak interaction rates at order $\mathcal{O}\left(e^2{G}_F^2\right)$ and forward scattering of neutrinos via their self-interactions have not been precisely taken into account in the whole literature so far. Recent studies suggest that these neglections might induce uncertainties of $\pm ({10}^{-3}–{10}^{-4})$ in $N_{\mathrm{eff}}$. Full article

In an atom, the interaction of a bound electron with the vacuum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field leads to complex shifts in the energy levels of the electron, with the real part of the shift corresponding to a shift in the energy level and the imaginary part to the width of the energy level. The most celebrated radiative shift is the Lamb shift between the $2s_{1/2}$ and the $2p_{1/2}$ levels of the hydrogen atom. The measurement of this shift in 1947 by Willis Lamb Jr. proved that the prediction by Dirac theory that the energy levels were degenerate was incorrect. Hans Bethe’s non-relativistic calculation of the shift using second-order perturbation theory demonstrated the renormalization process required to deal with the divergences plaguing the existing theories and led to the understanding that it was essential for theory to include interactions with the zero-point quantum vacuum field. This was the birth of modern quantum electrodynamics (QED). Numerous calculations of the Lamb shift followed including relativistic and covariant calculations, all of which contain a nonrelativistic contribution equal to that computed by Bethe. The semi-quantitative models for the radiative shift of Welton and Power, which were developed in an effort to demonstrate physical mechanisms by which vacuum fluctuations lead to the shift, are also considered here. This paper describes a calculation of the shift using a group theoretical approach which gives the shift as an integral over frequency of a function, which is called the “spectral density of the shift.“ The energy shift computed by group theory is equivalent to that derived by Bethe yet, unlike in other calculations of the non-relativistic radiative shift, no sum over a complete set of states is required. The spectral density, which is obtained by a relatively simple computation, reveals how different frequencies of vacuum fluctuations contribute to the total energy shift. The analysis shows, for example, that half the radiative shift for the ground state 1S level in H comes from virtual photon energies below 9700 eV, and that the expressions of Power and Welton have the correct high-frequency behavior, but not the correct low-frequency behavior, although they do give approximately the correct value for the total shift. Full article

The theoretical foundations of relativistic electronic structure theory within quantum electrodynamics (QED) and the computational basis of the atomic structure code GRASP are briefly surveyed. A class of four-component basis set is introduced, which we denote the CKG-spinor set, that enforces the charge-conjugation symmetry of the Dirac equation. This formalism has been implemented using the Gaussian function technology that is routinely used in computational quantum chemistry, including in our relativistic molecular structure code, BERTHA. We demonstrate that, unlike the kinetically matched two-component basis sets that are widely employed in relativistic quantum chemistry, the CKG-spinor basis is able to reproduce the well-known eigenvalue spectrum of point-nuclear hydrogenic systems to high accuracy for all atomic symmetry types. Calculations are reported of third- and higher-order vacuum polarization effects in hydrogenic systems using the CKG-spinor set. These results reveal that Gaussian basis set expansions are able to calculate accurately these QED effects without recourse to the apparatus of regularization and in agreement with existing methods. An approach to the evaluation of the electron self-energy is outlined that extends our earlier work using partial-wave expansions in QED. Combined with the treatment of vacuum polarization effects described in this article, these basis set methods suggest the development of a comprehensive ab initio approach to the calculation of radiative and QED effects in future versions of the GRASP code. Full article

We propose a theoretical model for realizing a photonic two-qubit phase gate in cavity QED using a one-step process. The fidelity and probability of success of the conditional quantum phase gate is very high in the presence of cavity decay. Our scheme only employs one two-level atom, and thus is much simpler than other schemes involving multi-level atoms. This proposal can also be applied to generate two-mode squeezed states; therefore, we give three examples, i.e., the two-mode squeezed vacuum state, two-mode squeezed odd coherent state, and two-mode squeezed even coherent state, to estimate the variance of Duan’s criterion when taking into account cavity decay. It is shown that the variance is smaller than 2 for the three squeezed states in most cases. Furthermore, we utilize logarithmic negativity to measure the entanglement, and find that these squeezed states have very high degrees of entanglement. Full article

This paper is devoted to the dual superconductor model of confinement in the 4D Yang–Mills theory. In the first part, we consider the latter theory compactified on a torus, and use the dual superconductor model in order to obtain the Polchinski–Strominger term in the string representation of a Wilson loop. For a certain realistic critical value of the product of circumferences of the compactification circles, which is expressed in terms of the gluon condensate and the vacuum correlation length, the coupling of the Polchinski–Strominger term turns out to be such that the string conformal anomaly cancels out, making the string representation fully quantum. In the second part, we use the analogy between the London limit of the dual superconductor and the low-energy limit of the 4D compact QED, to obtain the partition function of the dual superconductor model away from the London limit. There, we find a decrease of the vacuum correlation length, and derive the corresponding potential of monopole currents. Full article

Sensitive magneto-optical polarimetry was proposed by E. Iacopini and E. Zavattini in 1979 to detect vacuum electrodynamic non-linearity, in particular Vacuum Magnetic Birefringence (VMB). This process is predicted in QED via the fluctuation of electron–positron virtual pairs but can also be due to hypothetical Axion-Like Particles (ALPs) and/or MilliCharged Particles (MCP). Today ALPs are considered a strong candidate for Dark Matter. Starting in 1992 the PVLAS collaboration, financed by INFN, Italy, attempted to measure VMB conceptually following the original 1979 scheme based on an optical cavity permeated by a time-dependent magnetic field and heterodyne detection. Two setups followed differing basically in the magnet: the first using a rotating superconducting 5.5 T dipole magnet at the Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro, Legnaro, Italy and the second using two rotating permanent 2.5 T dipole magnets at the INFN section of Ferrara. At present PVLAS is the experiment which has set the best limit in VMB reaching a noise floor within a factor 7 of the predicted QED signal: $\Delta n^{\left(\mathrm{QED}\right)}=2.5\times {10}^{-23}$ @ 2.5 T. It was also shown that the noise floor was due to the optical cavity and a larger magnet is the only solution to increase the signal to noise ratio. The PVLAS experiment ended at the end of 2018. A new effort, VMB@CERN, which plans to use a spare LHC dipole magnet at CERN with a new modified optical scheme, is now being proposed. In this review, a detailed description of the PVLAS effort and the comprehension of its limits leading to a new proposal will be given. Full article