Round 5: 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 (10[1])Fock space construction, repeatedly applying the creation operator to this state generates an n-particle Fock state. The Casimir (10[1])effect arises from a non-zero value of this state’s expectation value. (10[1]-5[1])The self-energy of the photon causes this state’s namesake “polarization.” (10[1])Virtual particles spontaneously emerge and annihilate from this state. For 10 points, (10[1])name this lowest quantum state (-5[1])consisting of empty space. (10[1])■END■ (10[2])

Back to tossups

Buzzes

Summary