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爱因斯坦关于量子泡沫的理论得以证实

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ConfirmingEinstein,scientistsfind
'spacetimefoam'notslowingdownphotonsfromfarawaygamma-rayburst(Update
7hoursago

Thisisthe"SouthPillar"regionofthestar-formingregioncalledtheCarinaNebula.Likecrackingopenawatermelonandfindingitsseeds,theinfraredtelescope"bustedopen"thismurkycloudtorevealstarembryostuckedinsidefinger-likepillarsofthickdust.Credit:NASA
OnehundredyearsafterAlbertEinsteinformulatedthegeneraltheoryofrelativity,aninternationalteamhasproposedanotherexperimentalproof.InapaperpublishedtodayinNaturePhysics,researchersfromtheHebrewUniversityofJerusalem,theOpenUniversityofIsrael,SapienzaUniversityofRome,andUniversityofMontpellierinFrance,describeaproofforoneofthetheory'sbasicassumptions:theideathatalllightparticles,orphotons,propagateatexactlythesamespeed.
Theresearchersanalyzeddata,obtainedbyNASA'sFermiGamma-raySpaceTelescope,ofthearrivaltimesofphotonsfromadistantgamma-rayburst.ThedatashowedthatphotonstravelingforbillionsofyearsfromthedistantbursttowardEarthallarrivedwithinafractionofasecondofeachother.
Thisfindingindicatesthatthephotonsallmovedatthesamespeed,eventhoughdifferentphotonshaddifferentenergies.Thisisoneofthebestmeasurementseveroftheindependenceofthespeedoflightfromtheenergyofthelightparticles.
Beyondconfirmingthegeneraltheoryofrelativity,theobservationrulesoutoneoftheinterestingideasconcerningtheunificationofgeneralrelativityandquantumtheory.Whilethesetwotheoriesarethepillarsofphysicstoday,theyarestillinconsistent,andthereisanintrinsiccontradictionbetweenthetwothatispartiallybasedonHeisenberg'suncertaintyprinciplethatisattheheartofquantumtheory.
Oneoftheattemptstoreconcilethetwotheoriesistheideaof"space-timefoam."Accordingtothisconcept,onamicroscopicscalespaceisnotcontinuous,andinsteadithasafoam-likestructure.Thesizeofthesefoamelementsissotinythatitisdifficulttoimagineandisatpresentimpossibletomeasure

directly.Howeverlightparticlesthataretravelingwithinthisfoamwillbeaffectedbythefoamystructure,andthiswillcausethemtopropagateatslightlydifferentspeedsdependingontheirenergy.
Yetthisexperimentshowsotherwise.Thefactthatallthephotonswithdifferentenergiesarrivedwithnotimedelayrelativetoeachotherindicatesthatsuchafoamystructure,ifitexistsatall,hasamuchsmallersizethanpreviouslyexpected.
"Whenwebeganouranalysis,wedidn'texpecttoobtainsuchaprecisemeasurement,"saidProf.TsviPiran,theSchwartzmannUniversityChairattheHebrewUniversity'sRacahInstituteofPhysicsandaleaderoftheresearch."Thisnewlimitisatthelevelexpectedfromquantumgravitytheoriesandcandirectushowtocombinequantumtheoryandrelativity."

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