The quantum vacuum as the origin of the speed of light
arXiv:1302.6165 · doi:10.1140/epjd/e2013-30578-7
Abstract
We show that the vacuum permeability and permittivity may originate from the magnetization and the polarization of continuously appearing and disappearing fermion pairs. We then show that if we simply model the propagation of the photon in vacuum as a series of transient captures within these ephemeral pairs, we can derive a finite photon velocity. Requiring that this velocity is equal to the speed of light constrains our model of vacuum. Within this approach, the propagation of a photon is a statistical process at scales much larger than the Planck scale. Therefore we expect its time of flight to fluctuate. We propose an experimental test of this prediction.
6 pages, Accepted for publication in European Physical Journal D. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1111.1847, arXiv:1106.3996
Cited by in corpus (7)
- Four-Dimensional Scaling of Dipole Polarizability in Quantum Systems
- Polarization of vacuum fluctuations: source of the vacuum permittivity and speed of light
- Intrinsic measurement errors for the speed of light in vacuum
- How vacuum fluctuations determine the properties of the vacuum
- Dispersive Property of the Quantum Vacuum and the Speed of Light
- Zero-Point Energy Density at the Origin of the Vacuum Permittivity and Photon Propagation Time Fluctuation
- The Preferred System of Reference Reloaded