Materializing Light from Vacuum

The idea of empty or nothingness in a vacuum is definitely wrong as in vacuum, particles are fluctuating, appear and disappear continuously. Since their existence is so brief and short, they were refer to as virtual particles.

Vacuum fluctuations may have a relation with "dark energy"

Christopher Wilson, a Chalmers scientist and his co-workers, by using this understanding, have succeeded in creating light from vacuum. The experiment, was an attempt to understand various basic physics concepts such as vacuum fluctuations which may have some connection with dark energy.

In 1970s, physicist Gerald Moore, claim that if virtual photon bounced on a mirror that is moving on the speed of light, the photon may leave its virtual state and exist in real state, which is essentially light. What Wilson and his team did was conducting this experiment in order to observe this phenomenon that is called the dynamic Casimir Effect.
Picture showing the Casimir effect in place.

Göran Johansson, Associate Professor of Theoretical Physics said that in this experiment, photons can jump from virtual state into real state simply because it lack in mass. He also said that by exerting more energy, we can create other particles such as electrons or protons.

Source: Here

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