The Vacuum Catastrophe

If vacuum energy really does have the enormous value predicted by quantum field theory then our gently expanding, geometrically flat universe shouldn’t exist. This is the vacuum catastrophe. Get your own Space Time t­shirt at Tweet at us! @pbsspacetime Email us! pbsspacetime [at] gmail [dot] com Comment on Reddit: Help translate our videos! Previous Episode: The Missing Mask Mystery | Space Time Links to Comments Response: Michael Jeremy Zambelli TS1336 Eliran Cohen Let’s talk about vacuum energy from a theoretical standpoint. From the perspective of quantum field theory, every point in space is represented by a quantum oscillator; one for each elementary particle type. Higher energy oscillations represent the presence of real particles. However even the lowest possible energy oscillation – the one corresponding to the absence of particles – has some energy. Written and Hosted by Matt O'Dowd Produced by Rusty Ward Graphics by Kurt Ross Assistant Editing and Sound Design by Mike Petrow Made by Kornhaber Brown (www.kornhaberbrown.com) Big Bang BITISM CoolAsCats David Nicklas Quasar Tambe Barsbay Mayank M. Mehrota Mars Yentur Mark Rosenthal Dean Fuqua Y2 Justin Lloyd Hypernova Edmund Fokschaner Max Levine Matthew O’Connor Eugene Lawson Barry Hatfield Martha Hunt Joseph Salomone Chuck Zegar Craig Peterson Jordan Young Ratfeast John Hofmann Denys Ivanov Nick Virtue Alexey Eromenko Nicholas Rose Scott Gossett Mark Dykstra Chris Hicks Mark Vasile Patrick Murray Sultan Alkhulaifi Alex Seto Michal-Peanut Karmi Erik Stein Daniel Lyons Kevin Warne JJ Bagnell J Rejc Amy Jie Avi Goldfinger John Pettit Shannan Catalano Florian Stiglmayr Yubo Du Benoit Pagé-Guitard Nathan Leniz Jessica Fraley Loro Lukic Brandon Labonte David Crane Greg Weiss