A surprise within the Solar system - islands of the quantum vacuum with a negative effective gravitational charge?

Dragan Hajdukovic (1)

1 Institute of Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology

What if quantum vacuum fluctuations are virtual gravitational dipoles? As it was argued during the past decade, this hypothesis opens up the possibility to explain phenomena usually attributed to dark matter and dark energy by the gravitational polarisation of the quantum vacuum. Here, instead of large-scale considerations, we focus on the potentially testable impact of the quantum vacuum within the Solar System. While the effective gravitational charge of the quantum vacuum in Solar System is mainly positive, the most striking implication is a first prediction of well-located islands of the quantum vacuum with a negative effective gravitational charge. We have calculated masses and determined positions of these islands of the quantum vacuum corresponding to planets. It remains an unprecedented challenge to test if these islands (that repel the surrounding matter) exist.

Domaines: Cosmologie et astrophysique extra-galactique [astro-ph.CO]; Astrophysique galactique [astro-ph.GA]

Dragan Hajdukovic. A surprise within the Solar system - islands of the quantum vacuum with a negative effective gravitational charge?. 2021. ⟨hal-03177505⟩