this post was submitted on 03 Dec 2023
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Curious non-professional here.

Thought experiment that led me to the question: If we assume that at any given time there's an extreme level of EM and gravitational waves propagating through some point within a cosmic void (a seemingly homogeneous "vacuum"): do the transient emissions form any kind of emergent field?

I understand the ever-present zero-point energy but that should be in absence of all else. I'm contemplating an emergent field formed by EM/gravitational traffic. Obviously this field is only as present or strong as the transient fields passing through this point under consideration.

Thank you.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (3 children)

In physics, emergence is used to describe a property, law, or phenomenon which occurs at macroscopic scales (in space or time) but not at microscopic scales, despite the fact that a macroscopic system can be viewed as a very large ensemble of microscopic systems.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (2 children)

"Solids are made of only three kinds of particles: electrons, protons, and neutrons. None of these are quasiparticles; instead a quasiparticle is an emergent phenomenon that occurs inside the solid. Therefore, while it is quite possible to have a single particle (electron, proton, or neutron) floating in space, a quasiparticle can only exist inside interacting many-particle systems such as solids." Quasiparticle Wiki

I've also been studying Phonons on Wiki: " However, photons are fundamental particles that can be individually detected, whereas phonons, being quasiparticles, are an emergent phenomenon."

This is the micro/quantum phenomena I'm trying to further understand and was wondering if any quasi-fields/particles have been discovered or predicted in space - I couldn't find any so far.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

A quasiparticle is more of a useful concept for describing the behavior of systems than it is a distinct object. In the example you cite, phonons are a convenient way of describing how vibrations are transmitted in matter. The fact that phonons are “quantized” is more accurately just emergent behavior from the system of atoms or molecules, a consequence of the fact that the atoms have quantized vibrational states.

As an analogy, consider a ripple in a pond. The ripple appears to be a real, distinct thing. You can describe it with math (as a wave) and predict its behavior. But it cannot exist separately from the water in the pond. The ripple is an emergent phenomenon in water, a quasi-object. It only exists as a collective behavior of the water molecules.

By definition quasiparticles cannot exist in a vacuum.

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