The unusual polarization of the pulsar's light in the constellation Southern Corona indicated that the vacuum is not empty space from the point of view of quantum physics and that it is filled with constantly emerging and disappearing virtual particles and antiparticles, according to an article published in the journal MNRAS.
“According to the theory of quantum electrodynamics, a vacuum in a strong magnetic field behaves like a prism splitting light into two components. This effect is called vacuum double refraction. The high linear polarization of pulsar light that we measured cannot be explained in any other way if we do not take into account the existence of this effect,”said Roberto Mignani of the Institute of Astrophysics in Milan (Italy).
Today scientists believe that the vacuum, contrary to our common beliefs, is not the embodiment of absolute emptiness and just an empty space. It represents, in accordance with the laws of quantum physics, a constantly agitated "sea" of an infinite number of constantly born and self-destructing pairs of virtual particles and antiparticles. Their interaction, according to physicists, should have a special effect on the behavior of atoms and light.
For example, this quantum "sea" should have a special effect on the polarization of light in the presence of strong magnetic fields, causing it to split and polarize in the same way as light behaves in some natural crystals, causing it to split into two rays. Scientists have been talking about the existence of such an effect since the 30s of the last century, but they have not been able to record it until now.
Mignani and his colleagues were able to see for the first time how a vacuum causes light to split into two halves by observing the pulsar RX J1856.5-3754 in the Southern Corona constellation using the VLT telescope at the high-altitude Paranal Observatory in Chile.
Pulsars and neutron stars are superdense clusters of matter arising from the remains of large luminaries that have exhausted their reserves of stellar fuel. They are sources of super-powerful magnetic fields, millions of times more powerful than in the interior and in the vicinity of the Sun, which makes them ideal "laboratories" for studying the quantum properties of the vacuum.
Pulsar RX J1856.5-3754 is located just 400 light years from Earth and has a relatively "quiet" disposition - it almost does not emit radio waves and is not surrounded by supernova remnants, "firing" in all radiation ranges. This allowed European astronomers to see it with an optical telescope and measure the polarization of its glow.
As it turned out, the light of this neutron star was linearly polarized by 11-21%, which, according to astrophysicists, would have been impossible if the vacuum in the vicinity of the pulsar did not possess the "light-splitting" properties predicted by the theory of quantum electrodynamics.
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Further observations of this effect, scientists hope, will help to use it to study the "atmosphere" of neutron stars and study the secrets of how their interior, consisting of exotic forms of matter, works.