Last updated:: August 29, 2025

Why ‘nothing’ is impossible: Do nothingness and emptiness exist?

At room temperature, the wavelength of particles is extremely small (≈2x10⁻¹¹ m). As temperature decreases, particle speed slows, frequency drops, and wavelength increases until it forms a giant wave. Just as the speed of light is insurmountable, absolute zero is unattainable by matter.

The Elusive Concept of Nothingness

Since Antiquity, philosophers and scientists have questioned the nature of nothingness and vacuum (Parmenides, Democritus, Pascal, Kant, Heidegger…). These metaphysical notions, though widely explored, remain enigmatic.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519): "Nothingness has no center, and its boundaries are nothingness."
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662): "A nothingness in relation to infinity, a whole in relation to nothingness."
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860): "Nothingness after death? Is it not the state we were accustomed to before life?"
Victor Hugo (1802-1885): "Nothingness does not exist. Everything is something."
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900): "I think, therefore it is."

The Paradox of Nothingness: No Matter, No Energy, No Information!

Nothingness, defined as total absence (of matter, energy, information, spacetime), cannot be conceived without attributing some form of existence to it. As soon as we imagine it, it becomes something - hence the paradox. If nothingness cannot create or be thought of, let us turn to the vacuum, distinct from nothingness.

The Vacuum: A Complex Physical Reality

Unlike nothingness, vacuum is the absence of matter in a volume of space. But does it truly exist?

Classical Physics and Relativity

Matter-energy equivalence (E=mc²): Matter and energy are two forms of the same reality.
Omnipresent radiation: No region of the Universe is devoid of energy (Planck radiation, 1900).

Quantum Physics and Fundamental Limits

Uncertainty principle: Particles always possess a non-zero amount of momentum.
Minimum temperature: Absolute zero (0 Kelvin) is unattainable due to quantum fluctuations.
Vacuum energy:
- Even near absolute zero, a system retains a minimum energy (ground state).
- This energy manifests as virtual particles in constant fluctuation.
- It is the origin of observable matter (E=mc²).

"Just as the speed of light is unsurpassable, absolute zero is unattainable. Radiation completely fills the 'vacuum', making it dynamic."

Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?

Leibniz's Question

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) formulated this paradox: "Why is there something rather than nothing?" "Nothing" seems simpler, yet our Universe is very real.

The Big Bang and Quantum Vacuum

Big Bang theory: The Universe was born ~13.8 billion years ago from a fluctuation of the pre-existing quantum vacuum.
Observational evidence:
- Cosmic microwave background (2.7 K) detected in all directions.
- Temperature >absolute zero → omnipresent residual energy.

Minimum Energy: The Eternal Cycle of Vacuum

Towards a Return to the Ground State

The expanding Universe is gradually cooling. Its residual energy tends towards an absolute minimum, corresponding to the ground state of the quantum vacuum.

Cyclic Renewal

Energy conservation: Even after the disappearance of matter, space and time, energy persists in the form of quantum fluctuations.
New Universes: A sufficient fluctuation could generate a new Big Bang, restarting the cycle.
Unification of concepts:
- Nothingness, vacuum, non-being → Vacuum energy (virtual particles in constant fluctuation).
- The vacuum as the origin of all existence, and "nothingness" as the link between the finite and the infinite.

"This indestructible energy background, in perpetual renewal, could be the key to a cyclic cosmology, where each Universe is but an ephemeral fluctuation of an eternal vacuum."