EMPTY space may really be empty. Though quantum theory suggests that a vacuum should be fizzing with particle activity, it turns out that this paradoxical picture of nothingness may not be needed. A calmer view of the vacuum would also help resolve a nagging inconsistency with dark energy, the elusive force thought to be speeding up the expansion of the universe.
Quantum field theory tells us that short-lived pairs of particles and their antiparticles are constantly being created and destroyed in apparently empty space. A branch of the theory, called quantum chromodynamics (QCD) - which explains how gluons and quarks, the particles that make up protons and neutrons, behave - predicts that a vacuum should be awash with an interacting sea or "condensate" of quarks and gluons. This picture helps to explain how particles made of quarks get most of their mass.
This condensate carries energy, so it might ...
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