This would be its gravitational mass, or weight (Annalen der Physik, vol 14, p 479). This would result in a net force towards the massive object, so the particle would feel the tug of gravity. Warp the zero-point field such that a particle in its vicinity would encounter more photons on the side away from the object than on the nearer side. Imagine a massive body that warps the fabric of space-time around it. Now the researchers say that the same process can explain gravitational mass. This would result in a net force pushing against the particle, giving rise to its inertial mass (Physical Review A, vol 49, p 678).īut this work only explained one type of mass. But if a particle is accelerating, their calculations in 1994 showed that it would encounter more photons from the quantum vacuum in front than behind it (see Diagram). Net effect of all this jiggling is zero: there is no force acting on the particle. If they are at rest, or travelling at a constant speed with respect to the field, then the Rueda and Haisch argued that charged matter particles such as electrons and quarks are unceasingly jiggled around by the zero-point field. It is also called a zeropoint field and is thought to manifest itself as a sea of virtual photons that continually pop into and out of existence. Vibrations at every point in the universe. This field, which is predicted by quantum theory, is the lowest energy state of space-time and is made of residual electromagnetic That a very different kind of field known as the quantum vacuum might be responsible for mass.

In the 1990s, Alfonso Rueda of California State University in Long Beach and Bernard Haisch, who was then at the California Institute for Physics and Astrophysics in Scotts Valley and is now with ManyOne Networks, suggested Money spent looking for it in particle accelerators. But no one has yet seen the Higgs boson, despite considerable time and The theory was previously used to explain inertial mass – the property of matter that resists acceleration – but it has been extended to gravitational mass, which is the property of matter that feels the tug of gravity.įor decades, mainstream opinion has held that something called the Higgs field gives matter its mass, mediated by a particle called the Higgs boson. Now a controversial theory suggests that mass comes from the interaction of matter with the quantum vacuum that pervades the universe. Where mass comes from is one of the deepest mysteries of nature.

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