Quantum Fluctuations Were Experimentally Proven Way Back In 1947
If you spend enough time listening to theoretical physicists, it starts to sound like there are two separate worlds that they inhabit.
The real, experimental-and-observational world, full of quantities and properties we can measure to high precision with a sufficient setup.
The theoretical world that underlies it, full of esoteric calculational tools that model reality, but can only describe it in mathematical, rather than purely physical, terms.
One of the most glaring examples of this is the idea of virtual particles. In theory, there are both the real particles that exist and can be measured in our experiments, and also the virtual particles that exist throughout all of space, including empty space (devoid of matter) and occupied (matter-containing) space. The virtual ones do not appear in our detectors, don’t collide with real particles, and cannot be directly seen. As theorists, we often caution against taking them too seriously, noting that they’re just an effective calculational tool.
But virtual particles do affect the real world in important, measurable ways, and in fact their effect was first discovered way back in 1947, before theorists were even aware of their necessity. Here’s the remarkable story of how we proved that quantum fluctuations were real, even before we understood the theory behind them.
Imagine the simplest atom of all: the hydrogen atom. This was, in many ways, the “proving ground” for quantum theory, as it’s one of the simplest systems in the Universe, made up of one positively charged proton with an electron bound to it. Yes, the proton is complicated, as it itself is made of quarks and gluons bound together, but for the purposes of atomic physics, it can frequently be treated as a point particle with a few quantum properties:
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2020/11/17/quantum-fluctuations-were-experimentally-proven-way-back-in-1947/?sh=30d845213e0e