Isn't vacuum energy supposed to be the cost of having space?
So if you tap into it, and the energy that the universe uses to maintain space is used up, then wouldn't a proportional amount of space simply cease to exist?
Would this disappoearing space be at the site of the usage or at the edge of the universe, and would anything between the user and the edge seem to shift position to compensate for lost space?
2007-04-09 07:15:55 · 3 answers · asked by A Box of Signs 4 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Not at all. Space and energy are not related in that way. Vacuum energy is caused by virtual particles.
2007-04-09 07:24:12 · answer #1 · answered by Gene 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The whole point -- or perhaps definition -- of the vacuum energy is that you cannot tap into it. So of course, you cannot "use it up". The reason for this is that the vacuum energy represents the lowest attainable energy state of empty space, consistent with the Uncertainty Principal. So in order to be able to take something out of it, you would have to get it into a lower energy state, which by definition does not exist.
2007-04-09 07:27:00 · answer #2 · answered by Astronomer1980 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You can't 'use' it 'up'. That space will grow cold, the vicinity will lose gravity, and other dimensions/realities can bleed through, but the universe is not just three dimensional. No domino effects can reach out to the 'edge' of the universe.
2007-04-09 07:27:01 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋