"Researchers have found a way to get these virtual photons to influence the behavior of a superconductor, ultimately making it worse. That may in the end tell us something useful about superconductivity, but it'll probably take a little while."
"The story starts with quantum field theory, which is incredibly complex, but the simplified version is that even empty space is filled with fields that could govern the interactions of any quantum objects in or near that space. You can think of different particles as energetic excitements of these fields—so a photon is simply an energetic state of the quantum field."
"One of the stranger consequences of this is that locations that have a strong electromagnetic field can be filled with virtual photons even when no real ones are present."
Researchers discovered that virtual photons—quantum field excitations that transmit electromagnetic force but cannot be directly detected—can influence superconductor behavior. This work uses superconductivity as a testing ground for quantum mechanics principles rather than pursuing room-temperature superconductivity. The research involves boron nitride, a material with hexagonal ring structures similar to graphene, which affects light transmission directionally. Virtual photons exist in regions with strong electromagnetic fields even without real photons present. By manipulating these virtual photons' interaction with superconductors, scientists can observe their effects on superconductor degradation, potentially revealing fundamental insights about both quantum field theory and superconductivity mechanisms.
Read at Ars Technica
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