Detection of quantum-vacuum field correlations outside the light cone

Abstract: According to quantum field theory, empty space—the ground state with all real excitations removed—is not empty, but filled with quantum-vacuum fluctuations. Their presence can manifest itself through phenomena such as the Casimir force, spontaneous emission, or dispersion forces. These fluctuating fields possess correlations between space-time points outside the light cone, i.e. points causally disconnected according to special relativity. As a consequence, two initially uncorrelated quantum objects in empty space which are located in causally disconnected space-time regions, and therefore unable to exchange information, can become correlated. Here, we have experimentally demonstrated the existence of correlations of the vacuum fields for non-causally connected space-time points by using electro-optic sampling. This result is obtained by detecting vacuum-induced correlations between two 195 fs laser pulses separated by a time of flight of 470 fs. This work marks a first step in analyzing the space-time structure of vacuum correlations in quantum field theory

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• Standort: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
• Umfang: Online-Ressource
• Sprache: Englisch
• Anmerkungen: Nature communications. - 13 (2022) , 3383, ISSN: 2041-1723

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Ereignis: Veröffentlichung
• (wo): Freiburg
• (wer): Universität
• (wann): 2024
• Urheber: Settembrini, Francesca Fabiana ; Lindel, Frieder ; Herter, Alexa Marina ; Buhmann, Stefan Yoshi ; Faist, Jérôme

Weitere Informationen

• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-31081-1
• URN: urn:nbn:de:bsz:25-freidok-2444462
• Rechteinformation: Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.