Fascinating New Theory: "The Universe Could Have Been Created from Nothing"

[n2doc]

Using an ultra-high-intensity laser beam and a two-mile-long particle accelerator—it could be possible to create something out of nothing, according to University of Michigan researchers who developed new equations that show how a high-energy electron beam combined with an intense laser pulse could rip apart a vacuum into its fundamental matter and antimatter components, and set off a cascade of events that generates additional pairs of particles and antiparticles.

“We can now calculate how, from a single electron, several hundred particles can be produced. We believe this happens in nature near pulsars (image) and neutron stars,” said Igor Sokolov, with the Space Physics Research Laboratory in the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences who conducted this research along with associate research scientist John Nees, emeritus electrical engineering professor Gerard Mourou and their colleagues in France.

In Chandra's image , the colors of red, green, and blue are mapped to low, medium, and high-energy X-rays. At the center, the bright blue dot is likely the neutron star that astronomers believe formed when the star exploded. For several years astronomers have struggled to understand the behavior of the this object, which exhibits unusually large variations in its X-ray emission over a period of years. Astronomer's at the Harvard X-Ray Telescope took the image showing the 2,000 year-old-remnant of such a cosmic explosion, known as RCW 103, which occurred about 10,000 light years from Earth.

“It is better to say, following theoretical physicist Paul Dirac, that a vacuum, or nothing, is the combination of matter and antimatter—particles and antiparticles.Their density is tremendous, but we cannot perceive any of them because their observable effects entirely cancel each other out,” Sokolov added. Matter and antimatter destroy each other when they come into contact under normal conditions.
more

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2010/12/new-theory-the-universe-could-have-been-created-from-nothing.html

[tridim]

1. Well, energy isn't "nothing".

And since E=MC^2 still applies, there you go.

[jsamuel]

3. does that formula take into account the existence of antimater?

so, could the mass then be negative? produce negative energy?

[thereismore]

5. Yes, even antiparticles have positive mass (or zero). nt

[jsamuel]

6. thanks!

[suston96]

2. "“We can now calculate how, from a single electron, several hundred particles can be produced."

A single electron is something. So if a single electron produces several hundred particles that is most definitely something from something.

I knew that those two semesters of college physics would come in handy someday. So did English Comp 101.

Something from nothing? LOL.

[thereismore]

4. As usual, some science writer makes up an inaccurate yet catchy headline.

You can write a lot of shit without knowing what you are writing about. Spontaneous creation of particle-antiparticle pairs have long been known as "vacuum fluctuations". That's all it is.

[Permanut]

7. As long as particles and anti-particles can't marry...

I'm good with it.

[laconicsax]

8. What an over-hyped headline.

The idea that the universe could have come from fluctuations in vacuum energy is not new. Lawrence Krauss gave a talk about it a few years ago and Stephen Hawking's latest book talks about it as well.

The article proposes a new mechanism for an old idea.