On Tuesday, August 27, 2019 at 1:59:40 AM UTC-6, Bruce wrote: > > On Tue, Aug 27, 2019 at 5:39 PM Alan Grayson <[email protected] > <javascript:>> 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 >
I see. What about the vacuum energy? What does it consist of if not virtual particles? AG -- 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/a98e38c9-9c50-4414-98d1-32c799bc86d6%40googlegroups.com.
