Round 8: Tossup 17

The set of these states allowed by consistent theories is measure zero within a larger set that Cumrun Vafa called the “swampland.” This state is Poincaré-invariant, cyclic, and unique as a consequence of the Wightman axioms. Sidney Coleman proposed a mechanism in Kaluza–Klein theories where the decay of a metastable one of these states is caused by bubble (10[1])nucleation. (-5[1])In the Fock space construction, repeatedly applying the creation operator to this state generates an n-particle Fock (10[1])state. The Casimir (10[1])effect arises from a non-zero value of this state’s expectation value. (10[1])The (10[1])self-energy of the photon causes (10[1])this state’s namesake “polarization.” Virtual particles spontaneously emerge and annihilate from this state. (-5[1])For 10 points, (10[1])name this lowest quantum (-5[1])state consisting of empty space. ■END■ (10[3]0[1])

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