Sunday 7 February 2021

Is QED Wrong, or Just Wikipedia?

There seems to be an error either with quantum electrodynamics (QED) and stochastic electrodynamics (SED) or Wikipedia.

 This is the section in question (archived):

 

Note the critical density of the universe is in the order of 10-26 kg/m3 which means that the critical energy density of the universe (given that E=mc2) is in the order of 10-9 J/m3.

Note also for a universe with a radius of one Planck length, at an age of once Planck time and a corresponding Hubble parameter value of one inverse Planck time, the critical density would be in the order of 1096 kg/m3 which corresponds with a critical energy density in the order of 10113 J/m3.

A vacuum energy of 10113 J/m3 beyond the spacetime origin of our universe is ridiculous.  As an example, the Earth has an average density of 5515 kg/m3, which is equivalent to an energy density of 5x1020 J/m3 – meaning that if the vacuum had a density of 10113 J/m3, it would swamp us.  We’d not even be a rounding error.

Whether QED/SED is wrong, or Wikipedia contains a misinterpretation of the writings of Peter Milonni and/or de la Pena and Cetto, I don’t actually know.  But anyone suggesting such a huge magnitude of vacuum energy density should really go back and check their figures.

I am certainly not going to stay awake at night worrying about the cosmological constant problem (or whether I need to worry about it being a slam dunk for Fine Tuners).

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