vacuum fluctuation

1. A spontaneous, short-lived fluctuation in the energy level of a vacuum, as described by quantum field theory. Although these variations are violations of the law of conservation of energy, they are tolerated in quantum mechanics by virtue of the uncertainty principle. Such fluctuations are associated with virtual particles.

Example Sentences

Did our universe emerge from a vacuum fluctuation?

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As a result, quantum fluctuation should dominate the initial population, suggesting that we should observe parametric amplification of the vacuum fluctuation.

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Moreover, the observation that jets come from parametric amplification of the vacuum fluctuation suggests that such amplification could be a method of generating twin matter waves for metrological applications25,26,27.

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