On Tue, Aug 27, 2019 at 5:39 PM Alan Grayson <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Tuesday, August 27, 2019 at 1:08:33 AM UTC-6, Bruce wrote: >> >> On Tue, Aug 27, 2019 at 4:57 PM Alan Grayson <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> >>> But if virtual particles don't exist, if they're based on conceptual >>> errors, what's the basis for claiming the vacuum is not a vacuum of >>> nothingness? AG >>> >> >> Virtual particles are a useful heuristic for evaluating a perturbation >> series. The conceptual error is to reify the terms in this series, >> particularly the virtual particles. Quantum foam, or the picture of virtual >> particles fluctuating in and out of existence, everywhere, and all the >> time. Is a major conceptual confusion. There are no such things as quantum >> fluctuations in the requisite sense. Disconnected Feynman diagrams do not >> contribute to physical processes -- this is an elementary text-book result. >> >> Bruce >> > > How then do you interpret the Casimir Effect? Isn't it used to > experimentally establish the existence of virtual particles? AG > The Casimir effect is perfectly well explained in terms of Van der Waals type forces. Explanations in terms of virtual particles don't really work because virtual particles do not exert any force on anything -- because they are not real!!!! Bruce -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/CAFxXSLSJmWOY55Xup4X6v3S2h0_AUH_er8Nfjcr3GTr4FG5obA%40mail.gmail.com.
