Detection of quantum-vacuum field correlations outside the light cone

Francesca Fabiana Settembrini (), Frieder Lindel (), Alexa Marina Herter, Stefan Yoshi Buhmann and Jérôme Faist ()
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Francesca Fabiana Settembrini: ETH Zurich, Institute of Quantum Electronics
Frieder Lindel: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
Alexa Marina Herter: ETH Zurich, Institute of Quantum Electronics
Stefan Yoshi Buhmann: Universität Kassel
Jérôme Faist: ETH Zurich, Institute of Quantum Electronics

Nature Communications, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-5

Abstract: Abstract According to quantum field theory, empty space—the ground state with all real excitations removed—is not empty, but filled with quantum-vacuum fluctuations. Their presence can manifest itself through phenomena such as the Casimir force, spontaneous emission, or dispersion forces. These fluctuating fields possess correlations between space-time points outside the light cone, i.e. points causally disconnected according to special relativity. As a consequence, two initially uncorrelated quantum objects in empty space which are located in causally disconnected space-time regions, and therefore unable to exchange information, can become correlated. Here, we have experimentally demonstrated the existence of correlations of the vacuum fields for non-causally connected space-time points by using electro-optic sampling. This result is obtained by detecting vacuum-induced correlations between two 195 fs laser pulses separated by a time of flight of 470 fs. This work marks a first step in analyzing the space-time structure of vacuum correlations in quantum field theory.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-31081-1

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