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Re: Vitural particle cloud as preferred reference?



Regarding Glenn A. Carlson's question:
...
Question: Does the virtual particle cloud define a preferred frame of
reference? (This preference is similar to that once attributed to the
electromagnetic ether.)

Answer: No.

When a vacuum is considered as empty space, there is no way to measure
motion relative to the vacuum. But, if the vacuum is filled with
clouds of virtual particles, can we not determine whether we are
moving relative to this cloud and, therefore, relative to the vacuum?

Again, no. The physical vacuum (including the zero point energies of the
various fields and their virtual particles) is invariant under Lorentz
transformations.

David Bowman
David_Bowman@georgetowncollege.edu