SCIENCE CORNER BLOG: Zero Point Energy — Much Ado About Zero

Completing a recent whirlwind meeting and presentation science tour in the United Kingdom and the Isle of Wight has helped this promised subject a great deal.

So let's begin and see how much of this our local students and adults can relate in understanding the phenomena of Zero Point Energy: 

Zero-point energy is defined as "the lowest possible energy that a quantum mechanical physical system may have; or it is the energy of its ground state"

Vacuum energy is the zero-point energy of all the fields in space, which in the Standard Model includes the electromagnetic field, other gauge fields, fermionic fields, and the Higgs field. It is the energy of the vacuum, which in quantum field theory is defined not as empty space but as the ground state of the fields. In cosmology, the vacuum energy is one possible explanation for the cosmological constant. 

According to modern physics, a vacuum isn't a pocket of nothingness. It churns with unseen activity even at absolute zero, the temperature defined as the point at which all molecular motion ceases. Exactly how much "zero-point energy" resides in the vacuum is unknown.

Some cosmologists have speculated that at the beginning of the universe, when conditions everywhere were more like those inside a black hole, vacuum energy was high and may have even triggered the Big Bang. Today, the energy level should be lower. But to a few optimists, a rich supply still awaits if only we knew how to tap into it.

Residual energy must therefore exist in empty space: to be certain that the energy was zero, one would have to take energy measurements in that volume of space forever. They flash briefly into existence and expire within an interval dictated by the uncertainty principle. Zero-point energy therefore comes from all the types of force fields — electromagnetic, gravitational and nuclear. 

Underlying these attempts to tap the vacuum is the assumption that empty space holds enough energy to be tapped. This sea of energy is largely invisible to us, because it is completely uniform, bombarding us from all directions such that the net force acting on any object is - zero.

Let me know what you think and thank you. Respond to Dr. Doug