Inquiring electromagnetic quantum fluctuations about the orientability of space
Abstract Orientability is an important global topological property of spacetime manifolds. It is often assumed that a test for spatial orientability requires a global journey across the whole 3-space to check for orientation-reversing paths. Since such a global expedition is not feasible, theoretica...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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SpringerOpen
2021-07-01
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| Series: | European Physical Journal C: Particles and Fields |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-021-09426-9 |
| _version_ | 1818576577959559168 |
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| author | N. A. Lemos M. J. Rebouças |
| author_facet | N. A. Lemos M. J. Rebouças |
| author_sort | N. A. Lemos |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Orientability is an important global topological property of spacetime manifolds. It is often assumed that a test for spatial orientability requires a global journey across the whole 3-space to check for orientation-reversing paths. Since such a global expedition is not feasible, theoretical arguments that combine universality of physical experiments with local arrow of time, CP violation and CPT invariance are usually offered to support the choosing of time- and space-orientable spacetime manifolds. Another theoretical argument also offered to support this choice comes from the impossibility of having globally defined spinor fields on non-orientable spacetime manifolds. In this paper, we argue that it is possible to locally access spatial orientability of Minkowski empty spacetime through physical effects involving quantum vacuum electromagnetic fluctuations. We study the motions of a charged particle and a point electric dipole subject to these electromagnetic fluctuations in Minkowski spacetime with orientable and non-orientable spatial topologies. We derive analytic expressions for a statistical orientability indicator for both of these point-like particles in two inequivalent spatially flat topologies. For the charged particle, we show that it is possible to distinguish the orientable from the non-orientable topology by contrasting the time evolution of the orientability indicators. This result reveals that it is possible to access orientability through electromagnetic quantum vacuum fluctuations. However, the answer to the central question of the paper, namely how to locally probe the orientability of Minkowski 3-space intrinsically, comes about only in the study of the motions of an electric dipole. For this point-like particle, we find that a characteristic inversion pattern exhibited by the curves of the orientability statistical indicator is a signature of non-orientability. This result makes it clear that it is possible to locally unveil spatial non-orientability through the inversion pattern of curves of our orientability indicator for a point electric dipole under quantum vacuum electromagnetic fluctuations. Our findings might open the way to a conceivable experiment involving quantum vacuum electromagnetic fluctuations to locally probe the spatial orientability of Minkowski empty spacetime. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-16T06:16:14Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-a0ba6a9eed184a0a97e721eacfab1968 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1434-6044 1434-6052 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-16T06:16:14Z |
| publishDate | 2021-07-01 |
| publisher | SpringerOpen |
| record_format | Article |
| series | European Physical Journal C: Particles and Fields |
| spelling | doaj.art-a0ba6a9eed184a0a97e721eacfab19682022-12-21T22:41:16ZengSpringerOpenEuropean Physical Journal C: Particles and Fields1434-60441434-60522021-07-0181711410.1140/epjc/s10052-021-09426-9Inquiring electromagnetic quantum fluctuations about the orientability of spaceN. A. Lemos0M. J. Rebouças1Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal FluminenseCentro Brasileiro de Pesquisas FísicasAbstract Orientability is an important global topological property of spacetime manifolds. It is often assumed that a test for spatial orientability requires a global journey across the whole 3-space to check for orientation-reversing paths. Since such a global expedition is not feasible, theoretical arguments that combine universality of physical experiments with local arrow of time, CP violation and CPT invariance are usually offered to support the choosing of time- and space-orientable spacetime manifolds. Another theoretical argument also offered to support this choice comes from the impossibility of having globally defined spinor fields on non-orientable spacetime manifolds. In this paper, we argue that it is possible to locally access spatial orientability of Minkowski empty spacetime through physical effects involving quantum vacuum electromagnetic fluctuations. We study the motions of a charged particle and a point electric dipole subject to these electromagnetic fluctuations in Minkowski spacetime with orientable and non-orientable spatial topologies. We derive analytic expressions for a statistical orientability indicator for both of these point-like particles in two inequivalent spatially flat topologies. For the charged particle, we show that it is possible to distinguish the orientable from the non-orientable topology by contrasting the time evolution of the orientability indicators. This result reveals that it is possible to access orientability through electromagnetic quantum vacuum fluctuations. However, the answer to the central question of the paper, namely how to locally probe the orientability of Minkowski 3-space intrinsically, comes about only in the study of the motions of an electric dipole. For this point-like particle, we find that a characteristic inversion pattern exhibited by the curves of the orientability statistical indicator is a signature of non-orientability. This result makes it clear that it is possible to locally unveil spatial non-orientability through the inversion pattern of curves of our orientability indicator for a point electric dipole under quantum vacuum electromagnetic fluctuations. Our findings might open the way to a conceivable experiment involving quantum vacuum electromagnetic fluctuations to locally probe the spatial orientability of Minkowski empty spacetime.https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-021-09426-9 |
| spellingShingle | N. A. Lemos M. J. Rebouças Inquiring electromagnetic quantum fluctuations about the orientability of space European Physical Journal C: Particles and Fields |
| title | Inquiring electromagnetic quantum fluctuations about the orientability of space |
| title_full | Inquiring electromagnetic quantum fluctuations about the orientability of space |
| title_fullStr | Inquiring electromagnetic quantum fluctuations about the orientability of space |
| title_full_unstemmed | Inquiring electromagnetic quantum fluctuations about the orientability of space |
| title_short | Inquiring electromagnetic quantum fluctuations about the orientability of space |
| title_sort | inquiring electromagnetic quantum fluctuations about the orientability of space |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-021-09426-9 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT nalemos inquiringelectromagneticquantumfluctuationsabouttheorientabilityofspace AT mjreboucas inquiringelectromagneticquantumfluctuationsabouttheorientabilityofspace |