Photons that aren't actually there influence superconductivity
摘要
本文探讨了量子力学中虚拟光子对超导行为的影响。研究并非关注实用超导材料，而是以超导性作为测试量子场论奇异效应的工具。研究发现，即使不真实存在，虚拟光子仍能影响超导体性能，使其超导特性减弱。这一现象源于量子场论：真空并非绝对空无，而是充满量子场，粒子可视为场的激发态。该研究或将为理解超导性提供新视角，但其实际应用仍需时日。
Despite the headline, this isn't really a story about superconductivity—at least not the superconductivity that people care about, the stuff that doesn't require exotic refrigeration to work. Instead, it's a story about how superconductivity can be used as a test of some of the weirder consequences of quantum mechanics, one that involves non-existent particles of light that still act as if they exist.
Researchers have found a way to get these virtual photons to influence the behavior of a superconductor, ultimately making it worse. That may, in the end, tell us something useful about superconductivity, but it'll probably take a little while.
Virtual reality
The story starts with quantum field theory, which is incredibly complex, but the simplified version is that even empty space is filled with fields that could govern the interactions of any quantum objects in or near that space. You can think of different particles as energetic excitements of these fields—so a photon is simply an energetic state of the quantum field.
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