Orientability of space from electromagnetic quantum fluctuations

TL;DR

This paper explores whether quantum electromagnetic fluctuations can be used to locally determine the global orientability of space, proposing a potential experimental approach to distinguish between orientable and non-orientable spatial topologies.

Contribution

It introduces a method to detect space orientability through local measurements of quantum fluctuations affecting charged particles and electric dipoles.

Findings

A characteristic inversion pattern indicates non-orientability.

The orientability indicator can distinguish between topologically inequivalent manifolds.

Potential for experimental detection of space orientability using quantum effects.

Abstract

Whether the space where we live is a globally orientable manifold $M_3$, and whether the local laws of physics require that $M_3$ be equipped with a canonical orientation, are among the unsettled questions in cosmology and quantum field theory. It is often assumed that a test for spatial orientability requires a global journey across the whole $3-$space. Since such a global expedition is not feasible, theoretical arguments are usually offered to support the choice of time orientation for the spacetime manifold $M_4$, and space orientation for $M_3$. Theoretical arguments can certainly be used, but one would expect that the ultimate answer to the orientability question should rely on observations or local experiments, or can come from a topological fundamental theory in physics. In a recent paper we have argued that it is potentially possible to locally access the $3-$space orientability of Minkowski spacetime through effects involving 'point-like charged particles' under quantum electromagnetic fluctuations. Specifically, we studied the stochastic motions of a charged particle and an electric dipole subjected to these fluctuations in Minkowski spacetime, with either an orientable or a non-orientable $3-$space topology, and derived expressions for a statistical orientability indicator in these two flat topologically inequivalent manifolds. For the dipole we found that a characteristic inversion pattern exhibited by the curves of the orientability indicator is a signature of non-orientability, making it possible to locally probe the orientability of the $3-$space. Here, to shed some additional light on the spatial orientability, we briefly review these results, and also discuss some of its features and consequences. The results might open the way to a conceivable experiment involving quantum fluctuations to look into the spatial orientability of Minkowski empty spacetime.