{"id":13565,"date":"2016-11-30T06:00:44","date_gmt":"2016-11-30T11:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=13565"},"modified":"2016-11-29T21:34:49","modified_gmt":"2016-11-30T02:34:49","slug":"eso-hints-of-first-signs-of-a-weird-quantum-property-of-empty-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=13565","title":{"rendered":"ESO: Hints of first signs of a weird quantum property of empty space"},"content":{"rendered":"

The latest report from\u00a0ESO<\/a>\u00a0(European Southern Observatory:<\/p>\n

First Signs of Weird Quantum Property of Empty Space?
\n<\/a><\/strong>VLT observations of neutron star may confirm
\n80-year-old prediction about the vacuum<\/em><\/p>\n

By studying the light emitted from an extraordinarily dense and strongly magnetised neutron star using ESO\u2019s Very Large Telescope, astronomers may have found the first observational indications of a strange quantum effect, first predicted in the 1930s. The polarisation of the observed light suggests that the empty space around the neutron star is subject to a quantum effect known as vacuum birefringence.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>
This artist\u2019s view shows how the light coming from the surface of a strongly magnetic neutron star (left) becomes linearly polarised as it travels through the vacuum of space close to the star on its way to the observer on Earth (right). The polarisation of the observed light in the extremely strong magnetic field suggests that the empty space around the neutron star is subject to a quantum effect known as vacuum birefringence, a prediction of quantum electrodynamics (QED). This effect was predicted in the 1930s but has not been observed before. The magnetic and electric field directions of the light rays are shown by the red and blue lines. Model simulations by\u00a0Roberto Taverna (University of Padua, Italy) and Denis Gonzalez Caniulef (UCL\/MSSL, UK) show how these align along a preferred direction as the light passes through the region around the neutron star. As they become aligned the light becomes polarised, and this polarisation can be detected by sensitive instruments on Earth. [Larger images<\/a>]<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>A team led by Roberto Mignani from INAF Milan (Italy) and from the University of Zielona Gora (Poland), used ESO\u2019s\u00a0Very Large Telescope<\/a>\u00a0(VLT) at the Paranal Observatory in Chile to observe the\u00a0neutron star<\/a>\u00a0RX J1856.5-3754, about 400 light-years from Earth\u00a0[1]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite being amongst the closest neutron stars, its extreme dimness meant the astronomers could only observe the star with visible light using the\u00a0FORS2<\/a>\u00a0instrument on the VLT, at the limits of current telescope technology.<\/p>\n