When someone says that they are planning to “break the vacuum,” it probably means that they are parents trying to clean up a room usually occupied by a teenager … unless they are physicists. This then means that they are preparing to use a laser to create a hole in empty space and pull out the matter / antimatter electrons and positrons / compromise. Isn't it the job of the Large Hadron Collider to rip holes in space? Regardless of who is dealing with the gap, is this a good idea?
As with so many fiction and reality stories these days, the news comes from China, where physicist Ruksin Li is leading a team at Shanghai's Superintense Ultrafast Laser Facility (“superintense ultrafast”). "Overweight or scary, or both?" Developing a laser that will create the world's most powerful light pulses. How powerful is it? The team has already built a record-breaking laser that converts light into pulses of 5.3 million billion watts, or petawatts. They are nearing completion of 10 lasers that are 1,000 times more powerful than all the world's electrical grids … put together. And they are only five years from the crazy-named Headlight Station, which will be capable of pulses as high as 100 petawatts.
What are they planning to do with the Light Station? As usual, the researchers have a noble goal (also called a "cover") and a sinister one. A "good" goal - to create a titanium-coated sapphire cylinder capable of shooting 100 petawatt lasers, which can create temperatures never seen on Earth - should help in the development of new drugs.
Once that's done, the fun begins. By directing the Station of Extreme Light in the cosmic vacuum, we "destroy the vacuum" and prove that E = mc2 of Albert Einstein in the opposite direction, creating matter (in this case electrons and their antimatter - positrons) from energy. Or, as Lee suggests:
"That would mean you could generate something from nothing."
What could possibly have gone wrong?
It probably depends on where you are heading the High Light station. China is working on lasers to launch and destroy space debris and possibly dangerous asteroids. The US Department of Energy is developing ground lasers for knocking out unmanned aerial vehicles. The Extreme Light Station is a particle accelerator that, unlike the Large Hadron Collider, is inexpensive, small, and easy to assemble. This could put the LHC out of business … and perhaps put power in the hands of individuals whose goals may not be as noble as the government - Ok, this is debatable, but we have to trust that someone will control this power. Remember that this is exactly the opposite of Einstein's theory of nuclear energy from matter to energy … and we know how that happened.
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The last thing to think about. China is conducting research on these vacuum-loosening lasers, and Russia is not lagging behind. USA.
"That would mean you could generate something from nothing."
Is it time to stop dreaming about lasers and holes in outer space and start working on using the power of lasers for something other than weapons?
