Scientists were able to transfer heat through a vacuum at a record distance, and confirm the Casimir effect

California researchers conducted a unique experiment, during which succeeded with the help of quantum noise transfer heat through the vacuum to a distance of a few hundred nanometers (which is considered a huge distance). The results of the experiment were published in the popular science magazine Nature.

If we are open any modern textbook, we can read that the heat can not be transferred through vacuum, because the heat is transferred through the solids in the form of phonons or vibrations atoms molecules.

But surprisingly this experiment showed that it is phonons can be transmitted through a vacuum because of invisible quantum fluctuations.

The scientific community is increasingly convinced that the vacuum - is not sterile is something where there is absolutely no activity, and filled continuously born and self-destructing virtual particles and antiparticles.

This process even got their own definition and is referred to as quantum noise. And, as shown by theoretical calculations, the background noise is simply obliged to have an impact on other objects of macro- and micro-world.

An example of such an effect just referred notorious Casimir effect, according to which two thinnest Strips of metal, freely floating on a small distance in an absolute vacuum must be attracted to each other.

This process occurs due to the vibrations (fluctuations) in the vacuum energy, which are connected with the birth and death of the virtual particles and anti-particles. And the force of gravity in this case is called the Casimir force.

Although this effect was twice confirmed in 2011 and 2012, still remained skeptical scientists, but this experiment provided the third confirmation.

What is the effect of the use of

California-based research group has produced a set of super-sensitive equipment by means of which was created by maximum vacuum and clean all possible confounding factors that might interfere with the purity were excluded experiment.

Using the entire band picked prepared equipment dimensions such plates (made of silicon carbide, coated with gold) such that heat from one plate to the the other was transferred through a vacuum solely through interaction of the virtual particles and anti-particles, which interact with atoms and molecules plates.

The maximum distance at which the heat transfer is equal to several hundreds of nanometers.

As noted by Zhang (Senior Research Fellow Research Group), heat transfer at a distance through photon tunneling effect due to the pressure or electromagnetic radiation simply impossible. Which proves the real existence of the Casimir effect.

The benefit of this discovery lies in the fact that by using this effect can build efficient cooling components nanoelectronics and nanomachines.

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