@Groovyeli The "empty space" in this story refers to a vacuum. Normally, pairs of "virtual particles" pop in and out of existence even in an area completely evacuated of atoms.

However, near the borders of black holes, and in situations with sufficient power applied (e.g. hyper-intense lasers focused on a small area) the particles can be separated before they annihilate each other.

@JWilliams theoretically

@Groovyeli Yep. Though the theory -- Quantum electrodynamics -- is among our most successful physics theories. In fact, if it were wrong, quantum mechanics would probably not hold up as a theory in the first place.

@JWilliams I’m not saying it’s wrong, but they are learning a lot (lab vs life)

@Groovyeli That's always the way of things :)

@JWilliams I just re-read my toot, don’t mean to be rude, what I was replying to in the empty space was, the idea that space is some big void, and empty is a common mis-perception & perpetuated by tv, etc. There’s so much going on!

@Groovyeli Not at all! It's a good point. "Empty space" really isn't.

@JWilliams It’s mind boggling when you think of it, let alone all the things we are not capable of seeing with our limited focal range of light spectrum

@Groovyeli So "rip apart empty space" is a bit dramatic, but the idea is to produce phenomena that doesn't normally occur.

@JWilliams I know there’s been a lot of advancements in lasers, specifically what kind is a “hyper-intense) (morbid curiosity)

@Groovyeli It's not an official term. In this case, the lasers are extremely short pulses of energy, focused on a very small area--on the order of 100 petawatts (1 with 17 zeros after it) focused into an area a little smaller than a red blood cell.

@JWilliams my ex is a laser physicist (insane amount of degrees from applied physics to optics & chem) & between that & Sat Morning physics at U of M received a rudimentary understanding of different gases, etc. somIbwas curious, literally what type lol. My math inability has not enabled me to move beyond reading Feynman & “oh that’s so cool”

@JWilliams (ha, I hope I didn’t sound like an ass here, lol)