Research Oxford physicists recreate extreme quantum vacuum effects

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https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1085950

KEY POINTS:

• Physicists at the University of Oxford have successfully simulated how light interacts with empty space—a phenomenon once thought to belong purely to the realm of science fiction.
  
• The simulations recreated a bizarre phenomenon predicted by quantum physics, where light appears to be generated from darkness.
  
• The findings pave the way for real-world laser facilities to experimentally confirm bizarre quantum phenomena.
  
• The results have been published today (5 June) in Communications Physics.

INTRO: Using advanced computational modelling, a research team led by the University of Oxford, working in partnership with the Instituto Superior Técnico in the University of Lisbon, has achieved the first-ever real-time, three-dimensional simulations of how intense laser beams alter the ‘quantum vacuum’—a state once assumed to be empty, but which quantum physics predicts is full of virtual electron-positron pairs.

Excitingly, these simulations recreate a bizarre phenomenon predicted by quantum physics, known as vacuum four-wave mixing. This states that the combined electromagnetic field of three focused laser pulses can polarise the virtual electron-positron pairs of a vacuum, causing photons to bounce off each other like billiard balls – generating a fourth laser beam in a ‘light from darkness’ process. These events could act as a probe of new physics at extremely high intensities.

“This is not just an academic curiosity—it is a major step toward experimental confirmation of quantum effects that until now have been mostly theoretical,” said study co-author Professor Peter Norreys, Department of Physics, University of Oxford... (MORE - details, no ads)

PAPER: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s42005-025-02128-8