How the Quantum Vacuum Gave Rise to Galaxies

All the large-scale structure in the universe may owe its existence to nothing.

Thanks to Patreon supporters:
Bryan Baker, Donal Botkin, Tony Fadell, Saeed Alghamdi

Let's see how clearly I can explain this. We think of empty space as, well... empty, the epitome of nothingness. But as our understanding of physics has evolved we have realized that it's not truly empty. Space is filled with fields. There is a field for every subatomic particle. One for electrons, up quarks, down quarks, neutrinos and so on. In empty space these fields are basically zero, flat, nil. But it's impossible to make them perfectly zero so there are always some quantum fluctuations in the fields, even in a perfect vacuum. These are sometimes called virtual particles but they should really just be thought of as little disturbances in the field. Vacuum fluctuation play a role mediating the interactions of subatomic particles but they don't really have an impact on the large-scale structure of the universe, EXCEPT during inflation, right after the big bang when the universe increased in size 10^26 times. Due to this rapid expansion, those tiny fluctuations were blown up to the scale of the observable universe. And we know this by looking at the cosmic microwave background radiation where we can see slightly hotter and cooler parts of the early universe that correspond to density fluctuations. And it is these density fluctuations that allowed matter to clump together into large structures like the gigantic gas clouds that would go on to contain stars and planets. In case the video isn't clear, this is what I've been trying to say.

Animations by Gustavo Rosa

This video was sponsored in part by Dyson #ad

[veritasium]

What happened to my comment section?! :(
This video is about observations of our universe and our best scientific explanations of those observations. This video, like science, has nothing to say about non-evidence-based beliefs.

[superjez]

Comment section from nothing then it becomes chaotic and full of entropy.

[JeffNippard]

sean carroll needs no introduction apparently lol

[benedeknagy]

Have a nice day random scrolling person ;)

[marioborras]

Uploaded 7 seconds ago and there's already 1 dislike... Someone's life is REALLY sad

[edupoint.physics]

Thank you.
May be some day I shall be able to convey you WHY did I thank you.

[AakashKalaria]

We exist because of these small imperfections... from the birth of Universe to copying of DNA.

[TimevalueVideos]

I for one, welcome our new robot overlords.

[MinionNoMore]

Where did you develop the ability to explain complex ideas in simple words
that's awesome! :)

[mcspikesky]

Holy hell, the Bible brigade rolled in on this one...

[MrMakae]

We need to stop using the term "nothing". It is very misleading.

[tumbsor]

3:33 Those black dots that dont really exist :D

[brandonhall]

That ain't workin', that's the way you do it.
Get your galaxies from nothin' and your stars for free.

[DrzAnt]

Maybe eventually one day, everything in the universe will come together again and put Hillary in prison.

[Sokrateric]

God created the universe
End of story

[bilalgreen]

The face has over a hundred muscles !! Sorry i just felt intimidated by all this science jargon and needed to say something smart i know.

[vkong]

3:36
Wow I think it's amazing that Mr Derek managed to put an optical illusion in this video kind of accidentally, but with a purpose.

[sibiris]

How can you talk about such ancient stuff if our planet is only 2016 years old? Are you from Marz or somfing?

[thermalwinter]

Please never take down your channel Veritasium. Best science class that ever happened on earth. One for the generations.

[instantnoodles]

For everybody who's about to go into the comment section...

*DON'T*