Zero Point Energy doc
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| The Illusion of Mass Maybe there is no such thing as mass' -- only charge, which gives the illusion of mass when it is immersed in the quantum vacuum. It is an audacious idea, but one that would unify gravitation with the other fundamental forces of nature. Physicists universally accept the reality of the quantum vacuum, a sea of virtual particles and photons that wink in and out of existence too fast to be seen. But physicists are less confident that the virtual photons could create areal electromagnetic field. For starters, this zero-point field would raise problems with general relativity. Einsteins theory states that energy produces gravity in the same way that matter does. Just as a planet attracts other bodies gravitationally, an electromagnetic field attracts bodies gravitationally. A uniform zero-point field ZP OWER C ORPORATION PAGE OF 352 Z ERO P OINT E NERGY that filled the universe would bean enormous source of gravitation -- so enormous that it should reduce the universe to microscopic size. This is clearly not the case. Two linked theories have been proposed to resolve this paradox. If correct, they would constitute a paradigm shift in our view of matter itself. The first theory grew out of a suggestion made by the Russian physicist Andrei Sakharov in 1968 that gravity could originate in the quantum vacuum. Harold Puthoff published a quantitative, albeit preliminary, development of this idea in 1989. According to his theory, the zero-point field would cause charged particles, such as the electron or the quarks inside protons and neutrons, to oscillate. Whenever a charged particle oscillates, it emits electromagnetic waves of its own. These secondary fields would attract other charged particles. If true, this theory would unify gravity with electromagnetism -- an unexpected resolution to the long search fora unified theory. It would neatly answer the general relativity paradox. In this view, gravitation is caused by secondary fields induced by the zero-point field the zero-point field, in and of itself, cannot produce gravitation. The second theory is our proposed mechanism for inertia. Einstein's principle of equivalence tells us that inertial and gravitational mass are the same. If gravitation is electromagnetic, inertia must be, too. This implies a complete rethinking of what matter really is. The zero-point field is completely uniform for observers in uniform motion. But it is asymmetric for observers in accelerated motion. In 1994, we and Puthoff examined a phenomenon no one had thought to investigate before how the magnetic component of the zero-point field interacts with matter during acceleration. The result was surprising, to say the least. The magnetic Lorentz force opposed acceleration with a strength that varied indirect proportion to the magnitude of the acceleration (see figure. It looked like a derivation of Newtons second law, F=ma, heretofore considered an underivable postulate. What we feel and interpret as mass' is, in this theory, an electromagnetic resistance arising out of the zero-point field. If it is true that mass is a consequence of charge, rather than an inherent property of matter, it might be possible (in the distant future) to build anti-gravity devices that would switch off the inertia of objects. Are there objections to this theory Certainly. We propose it not as a done-deal, but as anew approach to longstanding, unresolved fundamental problems. There are two major reservations. First, we treated the quantum vacuum as if it were a perfectly real electromagnetic field. The available evidence on this issue is ambiguous, and more experiments need to be done -- ranging from laboratory measurements of the Casimir force to astronomical observations of large-scale structure in the universe. |