The recent Infinite Energy magazine (Volume 5, issue 30);
http://www.mv.com/ipusers/zeropoint/
had an intriguing comment on page 36 about a NASA grant to
fund a 'vacuum fluctuation' ZPE Casimir tapping experiment
from the Quantum Fields website;
http://www.quantumfields.com/
-----------------------
Summary of the proposal;
http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/PAO/pressrel/99_66addm.htm
The Use of Surfaces in Systems to Exploit Quantum Vacuum
Energy: A Theoretical Study Using QED (Quantum
Electrodynamics) Coupled with an Experimental Study Using
MEMs (Microelectromechanical) Devices Principle
Investigator: Jordan Maclay, Quantum Fields LLC, Richland
Center, WI
(Text excerpted and adapted from proposal summary.)
Quantum Electrodynamics (QED) is probably the best verified
theory in physics. It makes some startling predictions about
the importance of quantum fluctuations of the
electromagnetic field in empty space.
It predicts a near infinite vacuum energy density. Quantum
fluctuations have been linked to particle mass, to
spontaneous emission, to the speed of light, and to the
topology of the universe.
Since the presence of surfaces will change the energy
density of the vacuum, surfaces can be used to alter
parameters affected by vacuum fluctuations. The ability to
alter these parameters could be of significant benefit to
the BPP objectives.
We will perform a theoretical investigation of the use of
surfaces and cavity structures in order to alter vacuum
energy. A microelectromechanical (MEMS) interferometric
structure is planned to measure the index of refraction in a
cavity, which will serve as a test of QED predictions.
The variations in vacuum energy produced by surfaces can
also result in vacuum forces, such as the recently verified
Casimir force between two parallel conducting plates.
Very few other geometrical structures have been
investigated, and our understanding of the role of surfaces
in altering vacuum energy and generating vacuum forces is
rudimentary.
For rectangular cavities, forces are predicted on the walls
that may be inward, outward, or zero, depending on the
ratios of the sides.
Such forces may be of use in operating MEMS devices,
including resonant cavities. We propose to model and build a
MEMS cavity structure, to verify the QED prediction of
repulsive forces, and to study the properties of these
cavities and the energy balance in a static and in a
vibrating mode.
When we have gained a greater understanding of cavities and
vibrating structures, a second-generation MEMS structure
will be designed, modeled, fabricated, and tested.
We will investigate the possibility of fluctuation-driven
engines that operate between two regions of different energy
density, in a similar manner to which heat engines operate
between two heat reservoirs at different temperature.
Two types of engine will be considered: one in which one set
of surfaces moves relative to another, akin to an electric
motor, and a second type in which a working fluid, perhaps
consisting of atoms or electrons, passes between the two
regions of different vacuum energy. We will develop several
candidate structures for fluctuation engines and fabricate
the most promising.
In all theoretical and experimental work, care will be taken
to understand energy balance requirements and conservation
laws, and to determine what is possible and what is not. QED
computations will be used as the guide.
This effort will answer many of the basic questions about
the role of vacuum fluctuations, and lay a solid foundation
of knowledge about vacuum energy, vacuum stresses and how to
control them using surfaces and what their limitations are.
Researchers will be able to build upon this knowledge to
build more complex ideas and structures involving vacuum
fluctuations.
------------------------
excerpt from New Scientist - January 22, 2000
http://www.newscientist.com/features/features.jsp?id=ns222237
Energy unlimited
Empty space is seething with huge quantities of energy--if
only we could tap it. Henry Bortman reports on a
micromachine designed to do just that
....plan is to build a tiny machine that will measure this
vacuum energy and the forces it can produce. If things go
well, Maclay could land a fish of gargantuan proportions. He
hopes to find a way of exploiting these forces to do
something useful such as drive a miniature piston, heat
water, or even power a spacecraft.
Most people assume that the vacuum is empty. But according
to quantum electrodynamics, the theory that describes the
behaviour of the Universe at the very small scale, nothing
could be further from the truth. The vacuum is actually
seething with electromagnetic energy called zero-point
energy and it's this that Maclay hopes to tap. The "zero" in
zero-point refers to the fact that if you were to cool the
Universe to absolute zero, its lowest possible energy state,
some energy would remain. Actually, rather a lot of energy.
Physicists disagree over just how much, but Maclay has
calculated that a region of the vacuum the size of a proton
could contain as much energy as all the matter in the entire
Universe.
Maclay, a former professor of electrical engineering at the
University of Illinois in Chicago....and others have
calculated that the Casimir effect can produce repulsive
forces as well as attractive ones. His analysis has focused
not on metal plates but on tiny metal boxes, roughly 1
micrometre or less on each side, which he refers to as
cavities(see diagram).
It turns out that the Casimir force, and its direction,
depend on the shape of the cavity. "If you have a cavity the
shape of a pizza box, the pressure on the two large sides of
the box pushes them together, but the force on the narrow
sides pushes them apart," he says.
The cavity Maclay finds most intriguing is long and thin,
like the box a tube of toothpaste comes in, and about the
size of an Escherichia coli bacterium. What's significant
about this cavity is that one of its long sides is at
perfect equilibrium: the inward and outward vacuum pressures
are exactly equal. But it's a tenuous equilibrium. And
that's what makes it interesting.
Maclay plans to build a box in which the side at
equilibrium--call it the lid--is free to move. If the lid
moves inward slightly from the equilibrium point, the vacuum
pressure inside the cavity goes down, and the lid is drawn
farther in. If it moves outward the reverse happens and the
lid is pushed away. The distances involved are tiny--less
than 100 nanometres. The lid will be attached to a
microscopic spring.
So when the lid moves, the spring will be stretched or
compressed and will tend to return to its original position.
Maclay is hoping that by carefully balancing the vacuum
pressure of the cavity and the elasticity of the spring, and
by giving the lid just the right initial impulse, he can
create a tiny oscillator driven by Casimir forces.
Maclay plans to attack the problem in stages. Repulsive
Casimir forces have never been measured so his first task
will be to find out if he can even do this. Next he'll
measure the inward and outward forces at the surfaces of
cavities with different shapes, to see if they match
predictions. And if all that goes well, he'll be ready to
build a resonating cavity.
The job of building the experimental setup falls to Rod
Clark, a former nuclear engineer and president of MEMS
Optical, a technology company based in Huntsville, Alabama,
that manufactures microelectromechanical devices (MEMs). To
build Maclay's cavities out of silicon, Clark hopes to use a
combination of traditional lithographic etching and
deposition techniques--the same techniques used to make
integrated circuits.
Clark is confident that he can produce the necessary
structures. But he's also well aware of the challenges, the
first of which is size. Maclay's specifications are at the
limits of today's fabrication technology, says Clark. "We
want to make it small in order to make the forces large. But
we can't make it so small that we can't fabricate it."
Maclay and Clark's current plan is to make an array of
hundreds of topless cavities on a substrate, and then create
a single lid that fits over the entire array. The lid will
be suspended on springs above the array, which will be moved
toward the lid in tiny steps. Initially the lid should
remain still, but when the cavities get close enough, the
difference in vacuum pressure should cause it to move and
possibly even to oscillate. By peering across the surface of
the lid through a microscope, it will be possible to measure
its displacement with great precision.
Still, Maclay is already dreaming of various types of
"Casimir machines" that might be possible if his experiments
prove successful. Microscopic vacuum-drive levers, pulleys
and pistons come to mind, for example. Or perhaps a machine
that contains cavities that generate different vacuum
pressures and exploits that difference in much the same way
that a heat engine exploits differences in temperature.
"What we're looking at now are very simple things that
ultimately will serve as components of more complicated
systems," he says. "We've gotta kind of mess around to see
what they can do."
Further reading:
Jordan Maclay's website is at http://www.quantumfields.com
For more information on the Casimir effect see;
http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/casimir.html
The Breakthrough Propulsion Programme is at;
http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/bpp/
-- KeelyNet - From an Art to a Science Jerry W. Decker - http://www.keelynet.com/discussion archives http://www.escribe.com/science/keelynet/KeelyNet - PO BOX 870716 - Mesquite, TX 75187 - 214.324.8741------------------------------------------------------------- To leave this list, email <listserver@keelynet.com> with the body text: leave Interact list archives and on line subscription forms are at http://keelynet.com/interact/ -------------------------------------------------------------