Astronomers Detect Possible Quantum Twist of Light Around a Magnetar
A team led by Dr. Marcus Lower reports observations that may constitute the first direct evidence of vacuum birefringence, a quantum effect predicted by Heisenberg, using data from a magnetar’s extreme magnetic field.
An international collaboration including Dr. Marcus Lower of Swinburne University of Technology studied the magnetar 1E 1547.0-5408 to search for vacuum birefringence, a quantum prediction that empty space can affect light. Using NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer together with NICER on the International Space Station and radio data from CSIRO’s Murriyang telescope, the team recorded X-rays with exceptionally high polarization that stayed aligned with the star’s magnetic field.
The magnetar’s magnetic and rotational axes are nearly coincident and viewed almost pole-on, creating ideal conditions for the effect to be observable. The researchers interpret these clues as the first possible direct detection of Heisenberg’s virtual-particle phenomenon. Confirmation would open a novel avenue for probing the quantum vacuum in the universe’s most intense magnetic environments. Further observations and refined simulations are planned to distinguish this signal from other magnetar processes.
Why it matters
It could finally confirm a decades-old quantum theory and give scientists a new tool to study the universe’s most extreme conditions.
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