Vacuum Quantum Fluctuations in Curved Space and the Theory of Gravitation in Soviet Physics Doklady 12 No. 11, May 1968, pp. 1040-1041 - 1968

1968. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION OF SAKHAROV'S PATHBREAKING THEORY, THE FIRST QUANTIZATION OF SPACE. Full volume with original wraps bound in. In this paper, Sakharov suggests that quantum fluctuations of the vacuum induce the geometry of spacetime. His work gave rise to new research areas in physics, work that continues to this day. Soviet Physics Doklady is published by the American Institute of Physics and is an English translation of the physics sections of the Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov was a "Russian nuclear physicist, Soviet dissident, an activist for disarmament, peace and human rights" (Sakharov Human Rights Prize, 15 January 2014). In 1968 he sought address a number of physics ‘oddities', particularly that gravity seems to operate among complex aggregates of interacting particles but does not seem to impact interactions between elementary particles. As well, Sakharov wanted" to derive Einstein's general relativity formulas from a more basic set of assumptions" (Laszio, Connectivity Hypothesis, 57). "Physicists had known for a long time that there is a superficial similarity between Einstein's equation of how the momentum-energy tensor affects the curvature of space-time and Maxwell's equation of the electromagnetic field, but the connection between gravitation and electromagnetism was made only in 1968, and it had to do with the vacuum" (Scaruffi, Gravity as the Vacuum). In this paper, Sakharov proposes a simple explanation: "that gravitation might be not a fundamental interaction but a by-product of the electromagnetic interaction, precisely an electromagnetic phenomenon induced by the presence of matter in the quantum vacuum (the quantum field that is present even in "empty" space). Thus, according to Sakharov, matter is not just "there" but is "in" the quantum vacuum, and therefore interacts with it, causing some kind of quantum-fluctuation energy. That fluctuation is gravitation. "In a sense, Sakharov moved to Quantum Theory the same objection that Mach had moved to Newton's Physics: you can't assume that a body is isolated, because a body is always "interacting" with something. Except that Sakharov updated this idea to the terminology of Quantum Theory. A body, any body, is immersed in quantum fields, and thus interacts with them. One such field is the quantum vacuum. Sakharov [argues] that this was not negligible at all, in fact that it was the origin of the gravitational interaction itself" (ibid). CONDITION & DETAILS: Full volume with original wraps bound in. Soviet Physics Doklady (American Institute of Physics translation of the physics sections of the Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR). 4to. 11 x 8.75 inches; 275 x 219mm. pp. 1040-1041, continuously paginated. Ex-libris. Each front wrapper has light ex-libris stamps on the front; and there is a tiny gilt stamp reading "Du Pont Exp. Sta" at the foot of the spine. Otherwise clean and fine throughout.