Researchers at the University of British Columbia, Canada, found a way to imitate the dodge Schwinger effect using superfluid helium, where vortex pairs appear spontaneously in thin films rather than electrão -positrão pairs emerge from vacuum.
In 1951, the physical Julian Schwinger He theorized that by applying a uniform electric field to a vacuum, they could be spontaneously created pairs of electrons and positrons from nothing through a phenomenon known as quantum.
The problem with transforming this theory of “matter from nothing”In replicators or carriers worthy of Star Trek is that immensely intense electric fields would be needed – far beyond the limits of any direct physical experience.
For this reason, the appropriately called Schwinger effect never was observed.
Now, theoretical physicists at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada, they described, recently published in PNASa parallel effect in a System much more affordable.
In the model they propose, the study authors replace the vacuum with a Fine Film of Hélio Superfluidand the background flow of the superfluid by a high intensity electric field.
“Superfluid Hélio-4 is a wonder. With only a few thick atomic layers, it can be easily cooled to a temperature at which practically in a vacuum state without friction“, He explains Philip StampUBC theorist and main author of the study, in.
“When we make this frictionless vacuum flow, instead of appearing electrão -positrão, they appear spontaneously Vortex / anti -mortar pairsrunning in opposite directions to each other, ”adds the investigator.
In the article, Stamp and the colleague Michael Desrochers detail theory and mathematics behind this model – tracing a precise path for the realization of a direct experience.
O Vacuum Tunning It is a process of great interest in quantum mechanics and the quantum theory of Campos. In quantum theory, The vacuum is not empty: It is filled with float fields, which may give rise to the appearance and temporary disappearance of virtual particles.
“We believe that the film of Hélio-4 provides a good analog For various cosmic phenomena, ”says Stamp.“ The vacuum in deep space, the quantum black holes, until the beginnings of the universe itself. And they are phenomena that we can never access directly through experiences. ”
Still, Stamp stresses that the true interest of this work may be less in analogues, who always have limitations, and more in the way Changes our understanding of superfluids and phase transitions in two -dimensional systems.
“These are real physical systems, not just analogous. And we can experiment with them, ”adds Stamp.
At the mathematical level, the researchers had to reach several advances for the theory to work.
For example, previous works on vortices in surfaces treated the vortex ‘mass as an unchanging constant. Stamp and Derochhers show that this mass Drastically varies As vortices move, profoundly altering our understanding of vortices in both fluids and the primitive universe.
“It is exciting to realize how and why this mass varies, and how it affects our understanding of quantum tunneling processes, which are omnipresent in physics, chemistry and biology,” says Derochhers.
Stamp also argues that the same mass variability should occur with electrão -positrão pairs in the Schwinger effect, thus modifying Schwinger’s own theory – In a kind of “revenge of the analog”.
