The Source of the Quantum Vacuum

摘要

The quantum vacuum consists of virtual particles randomly appearing and disappearing in free space. Ordinarily the wave number (or frequency) spectrum of the zero-point fields for these virtual particles is as-sumed to be unbounded. The unbounded nature of the spectrum leads in turn to an infinite energy density for the quantum vacuum, and an infinite renormalization mass for the free particle. This paper argues that there is a more fundamental vacuum state, the Planck vacuum, from which the quantum vacuum emerges, and that the "graininess" of this more fundamental vacuum state truncates the wavenumber spectrum and leads to a finite energy density and a finite renormalization mass.