ZP OWER C ORPORATION PAGE OF 352 Z ERO P OINT E NERGY Electromagnetic Fluctuations Of The Vacuum With the above as background, we now get to the quantum mechanical zero temperature electromagnetic fluctuations of the vacuum. A region of empty space surrounded by matter at absolute zero temperature would seemly have no energy in it. Yet, since electromagnetic vibrations (light and radio waves) can pass unhindered through the vacuum, the vacuum contains the potential to support these vibrations. If we treat this region of vacuum in the same manner as we treated the block of matter, we can say that the vacuum can support electromagnetic vibrations of frequency f. The quantum mechanical equations for the electromagnetic vibrations in the region of vacuum are identical in mathematical form to the equations for the mass- spring vibrations of the atoms in the block of matter, so the equation for the average energy of each of the possible electromagnetic vibrations is the same =[n(T)+ In]hf. Only now, n(T) is the number of photons as a function of temperature, and, as before, when TO K, n(T)=O. But also, as in the atom case, even when T is at absolute zero, quantum mechanics predicts that each possible electromagnetic vibration in the region of vacuum will have a residual average energy of =hW2. This residual energy is an average. It is not that each possible electromagnetic vibration has a "half a photon" but that roughly half the electromagnetic vibrations have one (perhaps more) photons, while the others have no photon. Now comes the real problem, and the major reason why we need to carryout experiments to verify that the quantum mechanical electromagnetic fluctuations of the vacuum behave as the equations of quantum mechanics predicts. The block of matter has a large, but finite, number of atoms and therefore a finite total quantum mechanical vibrational fluctuation energy. The region of vacuum, however, can support an infinity of electromagnetic vibrations. The region of vacuum cannot support electromagnetic vibrations with wavelengths larger than its largest dimension, but it can certainly support those electromagnetic vibrations with wavelengths smaller than its size, such as infrared, optical, ultraviolet, x-ray, gamma-ray, etc. vibrations. There is no known limit to how small an electromagnetic wavelength can be. Each of these infinity of possible electromagnetic vibrations has an average energy of =hfl 2. So, according to this train of logic, a region of vacuum is not empty, but instead is teeming with an infinity of "half-photons" of electromagnetic energy. The famous physicist Richard Feynman estimated that if the minimum wavelength of electromagnetic vibrations was assumed to be approximately the size of a proton, the "energy density" of the vacuum would be 10108 J/cc 01 equivalently, the vacuum would have amass density" of 10"" g/cc. This is much greater than typical nuclear densities of 10'4 g/cc. It is this high predicted energy and mass content of the vacuum that gives rise to the hopes of many that it maybe possible to either extract "free energy" from the
