X-Message-Number: 17929
From: 
Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2001 11:39:03 EST
Subject: Re: CryoNet #17906 (nothing...)

From M. Perry:
<< 
 You misunderstand my intent here, which was not to argue that something can 
 form from nothing but to suggest that, even though we think of space as 
 "nothing" (please note the quotation marks!) it really isn't, and we should 
 not waste effort pondering how something can form from nothing. >>

Empty space is empty if seen for an infinite time. For any finite time dt, we 
must take into account the Heisemberg's principle who says: dt x dE is on the 
order of h. Here, dE is the energy uncertainty and h the action constant 
(Planck's constant).  If dt is finite, then dE must be too. So, even in empty 
space, for any finite time the energy can't be precisely zero. The dE value 
is seen as pairs of particles-antiparticles popping out of nothing and 
destroyed after a time dt.

Even ordinary matter may be temporary: Matter has a mass and that mass is 
equivalent to some energy ( recall E = M c ^2 ). Matter has too a 
gravitational field and that field has too an energy inside it. Now, the 
positive energy of matter is equal in aboslute value to the negative 
potential energy of its gravitational field up to infinite distance. The sum 
is zero!

We see some matter here simply because the Universe age is finite and 
gravitation propagates at a finite speed, so the potential negative energy 
has not expanded up to the infinite and can't cancel the positive local mass.

Yvan Bozzonetti.

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