Quantum Vacuum Breakthrough: Oxford Physicists Make Light Emerge From “Nothing”

• Oxford scientists have simulated light interacting with “empty” space—a strange quantum effect that sounds like science fiction but is rooted in real physics.
• Incredibly, the simulation shows light being created from darkness, confirming predictions from quantum theory about the vacuum being filled with invisible, flickering particles.
• This breakthrough brings us one step closer to proving these wild effects in real-world labs, using ultra-powerful laser systems now coming online around the world.
• The research was published in Communications Physics, marking a major step in turning once-theoretical physics into testable reality.

Quantum Vacuum Unveiled With Laser Power

Powerful lasers are letting scientists peer into the “empty” vacuum of space, and it turns out that emptiness isn’t empty at all.

Researchers at the University of Oxford and Portugal’s Instituto Superior Técnico have run the first real-time, 3D computer simulations showing how ultra-intense laser beams can stir up the so-called quantum vacuum, a realm seething with fleeting electron-positron pairs.

Their model captures a mind-bending effect called vacuum four-wave mixing. Picture three tightly focused laser pulses converging: their combined electromagnetic fields jolt those virtual particles, making photons ricochet off one another like billiard balls. The payoff is a fourth laser beam—light literally emerging from darkness—that could expose brand-new physics at extreme energies.

Towards Experimental Confirmation of Quantum Predictions

“This is not just an academic curiosity—it is a major step toward experimental confirmation of quantum effects that until now have been mostly theoretical,” said study co-author Professor Peter Norreys, Department of Physics, University of Oxford.

The work arrives just in time as a new generation of ultra-powerful lasers starts to come online. Facilities such as the UK’s Vulcan 20-20, the European ‘Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI)’ project, and China’s Station for Extreme Light (SEL) and SHINE facilities are set to deliver power levels high enough to potentially confirm photon-photon scattering in the lab for the first time. Photon-photon scattering has already been selected as one of three flagship experiments at the University of Rochester’s OPAL dual-beam 25 PW laser facility in the United States.

Next-Gen OSIRIS Simulation Powers Discovery

The simulations were carried out using an advanced version of OSIRIS, a simulation software package that models interactions between laser beams and matter or plasma.

Lead author Zixin (Lily) Zhang, a doctoral student at Oxford’s Department of Physics, said: “Our computer program gives us a time-resolved, 3D window into quantum vacuum interactions that were previously out of reach. By applying our model to a three-beam scattering experiment, we were able to capture the full range of quantum signatures, along with detailed insights into the interaction region and key time scales. Having thoroughly benchmarked the simulation, we can now turn our attention to more complex and exploratory scenarios—including exotic laser beam structures and flying-focus pulses.”

Crucially, these models provide details that experimentalists depend on to design precise, real-world tests including realistic laser shapes and pulse timings. The simulations also reveal new insights, including how these interactions evolve in real time and how subtle asymmetries in beam geometry can shift the outcome.

Hunting Dark Matter With Virtual Light

According to the team, the tool will not only assist in planning future high-energy laser experiments but could also help search for signs of hypothetical particles such as axions and millicharged particles—potential candidates for dark matter.

Study co-author Professor Luis Silva (at the Instituto Superior Tecnico, University of Lisbon, and Visiting Professor in Physics at the University of Oxford) added: “A wide range of planned experiments at the most advanced laser facilities will be greatly assisted by our new computational method implemented in OSIRIS. The combination of ultra-intense lasers, state-of-the-art detection, cutting-edge analytical and numerical modeling are the foundations for a new era in laser-matter interactions, which will open new horizons for fundamental physics.”

Reference: “Computational modelling of the semi-classical quantum vacuum in 3D” by Zixin Zhang, Ramy Aboushelbaya, Iustin Ouatu, Elliott Denis, Abigail James, Robin J. L. Timmis, Marko W. Von Der Leyen, Peter A. Norreys, Rui Torres, Thomas Grismayer and Luis O. Silva, 5 June 2025, Communications Physics.
DOI: 10.1038/s42005-025-02128-8

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