It's not ZPE that causes uncertainty, but the other way around! Due to the indeterminacy of wave function collapse there's a non-zero chance of virtual photons of any wavelength precipitating out of vacuum at any location.... that's the ZPE.
Consider the twin-plate Casimir effect - there's two alternate explanations usually given for the phenomenon: - the narrow space between the plates precludes virtual photons with more than half that wavelength from manifesting within that confine, causing an effective band gap in ZPE pressures inside vs outside the sandwich, and hence a mechanical force. - alternatively, it is explained in terms of induction; the spontaneous appearance and instantaneous disappearance of virtual photons induce transient EMFs per Faraday which interact classically, producing the net force. So either way, it is the indeterminacy of the wavefunction that gives a latent energy to the EM field. It should also be remembered that virtual photons are the standard EM mediator - the force between magnets, charges (ie. voltage), and likely other forces too (W/Z and maybe even strong and gravity) have to be accomodated in our reckonings of the ZPE density... after all, virtual photons aren't "emitted" by charges, but simply coopted from the vacuum potential. This illustrates the so-called vacuum catastrophe - the ZPE density needed to explain the Casimir effect is very low, yet the same field also has to be able to account for magnetars and millisecond pulsars etc., and everything else between. The actual currency exchanged between charges in relative motion, via the intermediary of virtual photons, is ambient momentum - the "spin" field, quantised in signed units of h-bar. IOW the "stuff" of ZPE is ambient momentum. So it DOES have a corporeal form, and can't just be a notional abstraction as suggested by mere attribution to indeterminacy. It delineates fermions from bosons, gives substance to matter.. it's a fundamental and ubiquitous substrate. Hence the ZPE density could be a few millijoules per meter^3, or several times the total thermodynamic energy of the universe per meter^3, depending on whatever you need it to explain. To say Heisenberg's ignorance principle has a lot to answer for would be a consomological understatement... and one reason alternatives like M-theory are gaining traction. But until we have a QG theory, it's the best we have (and also works brilliantly per QED, QCD etc).. . On Sat, Feb 13, 2016 at 3:17 AM, Bob Cook <[email protected]> wrote: > That’s what I thought—it’s a pretty vague connection. > > Bob Cook > > *From:* Jones Beene <[email protected]> > *Sent:* Friday, February 12, 2016 6:57 PM > *To:* [email protected] > *Subject:* RE: [Vo]:New application of uncertainty principle and > differential ZPE-- > > > *From:* Bob Cook > > Ø > > Ø Can any Vort explain the relation between ZPE and the Uncertainty > Principle? > > > > > Bob - You will probably find mostly anecdotes, since a physical connection > between the two is strained. One relationship I found in a quick search is > that the Uncertainty Principle defines the limits of the minimal thermal > system at zero degrees in 3-space via the harmonic oscillator. For > instance, helium should freeze solid at ambient pressure and zero degrees, > but doesn’t. Granted, this at first seems to be little in the way of > energy. > > BTW Helium does freeze at high pressure (and absolute zero). For Helium-4 > it is ~2.5 MPa. The virtual photons which keep the electrons away from > the nucleus apparently resist compression by a significant amount. If ZPE > exerts a counter force of around 2.5 Mpa, and each atom has a volume of > about 3x10^(-30) m^3, then there is a lot of force available in a tiny > space - if anyone can figure out a way to convert it to energy. > > Here is another way (simpler) to express it. ZPE prevents physical systems > from > dropping to zero energy at zero temperature… and without a foundation at zero > energy, there is no certainty in relative position (or any complementary > variables). Stated that way, it looks like a close relationship. >
