Round 9: 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 nucleation. In the Fock space construction, repeatedly applying the creation operator to this state generates an n-particle Fock state. The Casimir effect arises from a non-zero value of this state’s expectation value. The self-energy of the photon causes this state’s namesake “polarization.” Virtual particles spontaneously emerge and annihilate from this state. For 10 points, name this lowest quantum state consisting of empty space. ■END■
ANSWER: vacuums [or vacua; or vacuum states; accept string theory vacua or vacuums; accept vacuum polarization; accept vacuum expectation value; accept false vacuum or vacuum decay; accept quantum vacuum; prompt on ground state; prompt on free space or empty space until read; prompt on zero-point energy] (The first sentence refers to the swampland in contrast to the string theory landscape of allowable false vacua.)
<GC, Physics> | Packet N - Simon Fraser A, Carleton A, Georgia Tech A, Claremont A, Warwick A, Columbia B
= Average correct buzzpoint
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