DOW-UAP-D142, AAWSAP DIRD, Concepts for Extracting Energy from the Quantum Vacuum, April 2010

This document is a Defense Intelligence Reference Document (DIRD), a technical reference format used by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) to capture baseline knowledge on a specific topic for later analytic use. DIRDs are best understood as reference and synthesis products rather than as original research. It is one of 38 DIRDs produced under the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP) between 2009 and 2011. Because AAWSAP’s scope permitted a broad range of supporting topics, not every DIRD in the series directly concerns aerospace systems or future threat assessment. The following summary reflects the DIRD’s scope and framing at the time of writing and should not be read as implying current validation of the concepts discussed. This DIRD examines whether useful energy might be extracted from the quantum vacuum, the ground state with the lowest possible energy of quantum fields. This treatment considers applications for space power or “propellantless” propulsion by reviewing a range of concepts involving zero-point fluctuations, Casimir effects, squeezed vacuum states, Dirac-vacuum decay, and possible vacuum phase changes in quantum chromodynamics. The report argues that established physical models contain real vacuum-related phenomena, and that certain mechanisms can be modeled as energy-releasing phase changes under specific boundary conditions or intense external fields. However, it acknowledges that no practical method for continuous or useful energy extraction has been demonstrated experimentally and that standard quantum electrodynamics does not support continuous vacuum-energy conversion in the manner proposed. Frameworks based on the concepts described in the DIRD remain theoretically underdeveloped and experimentally unconfirmed at the time of writing.

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Defense
Intelligence
Reference
Document
Acquisition Threat Support
6 April 2010
ICOD: 1 December 2009
DIA-08-1004-007
Concepts for Extracting
Energy From the Quantum
Vacuum
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Concepts for Extracting Energy From the Quantum Vacuum
Prepared by:
Acquisition Support Division (DW0-3)
Defense Warning Office
Directorate for Analysis
Defense Intelligence Agency
Author:
AAP Person 58
Administrative Note
COPYRIGHT WARNING: Further dissemination of the photographs in this publication is not authorized.
This product is one in a series of advanced technology reports produced in FY 2009
under the Defense Intelligence Agency, Defense Warning Office's Advanced Aerospace
Weapon System Applications (AAWSA) Program. Comments or questions pertaining to
I,
this document should be addressed tojAAPPerson 1 AAWSA Program
Manager, Defense Intelligence Agency, ATTN: CLAR/DWO-3, Bldg 6000, Washington,
DC 20340-5100.
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Contents
I. Summary .............................................................................................................v
II. Historical Concepts for Extracting Energy and Thermodynamic Considerations 1
III. Origin of Zero-Point Field Energy..................................................................... 4
Elements of QED Theory ..................................................................................... 4
Elements of SED Theory ..................................................................................... 6
IV. Review of Selected Experiments....................................................................... 7
Voltage Fluctuations in Coils Induced by ZPF at High Frequency........................ 7
ZPF Energy Extraction by Ground State Energy Reduction ............................... 10
Tunable Casimir Effect ..................................................................................... 14
EV Phenomenon ............................................................................................... 17
V. Theoretical Considerations and Issues............................................................. 22
QED Vacuum Revisited ..................................................................................... 22
QED Vacuum as a Plenum............................................................................. 22
QED Vacuum as a Mathematical "Placeholder" for Fluctuating Matter Fields 23
Casimir Effect Revisited ................................................................................... 24
Casimir Effect in the Plenum Picture ............................................................ 24
Casimir Effect in the Fluctuating Matter Fields Picture ................................. 24
Type I (Transient) and Type II (Continuous) Machines.................................... 25
Degradability of the Vacuum ............................................................................ 25
Alternatives to QED .......................................................................................... 26
Neoclassical Theories of QED Vacuum Fluctuation Effects............................ 26
SED Model Revisited ..................................................................................... 27
QED Without Second-Quantized Fields ......................................................... 28
Examples of Degradable of Decaying Vacuum .................................................. 28
Gravitational Squeezing of the Vacuum ........................................................ 29
Redshifting the Vacuum ............................................................................... 29
Vacuum Field Stress: Negative Vacuum Energy from the Casimir Effect...... 30
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Squeezed Quantum Vacuum ......................................................................... 32
Dirac Vacuum Decay: "Sparking the Vacuum" .............................................. 33
Magnetically Induced Decay of the Dirac Vacuum ........................................ 34
Melting the QCD Vacuum .............................................................................. 35
Summary: ZPF Modes and Vacuum Field Energy ......................................... 37
VI. Conclusion: The Way Forward to 2050........................................................... 37
Acknowledgements .............................................................................................. 41
Appendix: The QCD Bag Model ............................................................................ 42
References ........................................................................................................... 44
Figures
Figure 1. Illustration of the Casimir Effect ............................................................. 1
Figure 2. Vacuum-Fluctuation Battery.................................................................... 1
Figure 3. ZPE Resonant Dielectric Spheres Electrical Power Generation................. 3
Figure 4. Theoretical Voltage Spectral Density of a Tungsten Coil.......................... 9
Figure 5. Energy Released from Ground State Suppression of Hydrogenic Atom
in a Microcavity ..................................................................................... 11
Figure 6. Apparatus for Ground State Energy Suppression: Casimir Segmented
Tunnels ................................................................................................. 13
Figure 7. Alternative Apparatus for Ground State Energy Suppression: Casimir
Strip and Spacer-Channels .................................................................... 13
Figure 8. Experimental Apparatus for Ground State Energy Reduction Tests ....... 14
Figure 9. Tunable Casimir Effect: Conductor vs. Dielectric................................... 15
Figure 10. Tunable Casimir Effect: Engine Cycle ................................................... 16
Figure 11. Schematic of EV (Pulse Discharge Source) Device............................... 18
Figure 12. SEM of EV Damage to Ceramic Plate.................................................... 19
Figure 13. SEM of EV Damage to Palladium Target ............................................... 20
Figure 14. EV Moving at Downward Angle Away From Its Source........................ 21
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Concepts for Extracting Energy From the Quantum Vacuum
I. Summary
Quantum theory predicts that the vacuum of space throughout the universe is
filled with electromagnetic waves, random in phase and amplitude,
propagating in all possible directions, and with a cubic frequency distribution.
This differs from the cosmic microwave background radiation and is referred
to as the electromagnetic quantum vacuum, which is the lowest energy state
of otherwise empty sp~ace. When integrated over all frequency modes up to the
Planck frequency, vp ( 1043 Hertz [Hz]), it represents an energy density of as
much as 10113 J/m3, which is far in excess of any other known energy source,
even if only an infinitesimal fraction of it is accessible. Even if one is
constrained to integrate over all frequency modes only up to the nucleon
~ ~
Compton frequency ( 1023 Hz),1 this energy density is still enormous ( 1035
J/m3). In addition, the electromagnetic quantum vacuum is not alone; it
intimately couples to the charged particles in the Dirac sea of virtual fermion
particle-antiparticle pairs (aka the Dirac vacuum) and thereby couples to the
other interactions inherent in the Standard Model (weak and strong force
vacua). However, in the Standard Model of particle physics, the weak force
vacuum is essentially the electromagnetic vacuum, because photons serve as
the massless eigenstates of (unified) electroweak theory with an "effective"
coupling constant that is in fact electromagnetic in strength.2 And we can
safely ignore any coupling of the quantum electromagnetic vacuum to the
quantum chromodynamic vacuum in this paper because the latter coexists in
two phases: (1) the ordinary vacuum exterior to the hadron, which is
impenetrable to quark color, and (2) the vacuum interior of the hadron,3 in
which the Yang-Mills fields that carry color (gluons) propagate freely. Both
vacuum phases are separated by a boundary at the surface of the hadron on
which the Yang-Mills and quark fields satisfy boundary conditions.
Even though this zero-point field (ZPF) energy seems to be an inescapable
consequence of quantum field theory, its energy density is so enormous as to
make it difficult to reconcile. Instead, many quantum calculations subtract the
ZPF energy by ad hoc means (for example, renormalization). However, the
effects of the quantum vacuum ZPF that are responsible for a variety of well­
known physical effects are observed, such as:
Lamb shift.
Spontaneous atomic emission.
1 The characteristic frequency associated with the size of nucleons.
2 The weak force coupling constant is merely the quantum electrodynamic/electromagnetic
coupling constant (i.e., the fine structure constant, a) that is "suppressed" by a simple
inverse-quadratic ratio of the virtual weak force particle mass to the proton mass (a factor
of 10-4).
3 Hadrons are the class of strongly interacting elementary particles which are a bound state
of quarks. This class of particles has two subclasses: baryons (e.g., protons and neutrons
comprised of three quarks) and mesons ( comprised of two quarks).
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Low-temperature van der Waals forces.
Casimir effect.
Source of photon shot and fluctuating radiation-pressure noise in lasers.
• Astronomically observed cosmological constant (aka dark energy, a form of
Casimir energy according to the Schwinger-DeWitt quantum ether
prescription [ Reference 1-4]).
Rather than eliminate the ZPF energy from the equations, there is much left to
be learned by exploring the possibility that it is a real energy, From this
perspective, the ordinary world of matter and energy is like foam atop the
quantum vacuum sea. Ifthe ZPF is real, then there is the possibility that it can
be tapped as a source of power or be harnessed to generate a propulsive force
for space travel. This notion of exchanging energy with the quantum vacuum
is the focus of this paper.
An aircraft propeller or jet engine can push air backwards to propel the
aircraft forward. A ship or boat propeller does the same thing in water. On
Earth there is air or water to push against. But a rocket in space has no
material medium to push against, and so it needs to carry and eject propellant
in order to provide momentum. A deep-space rocket must start out with all the
propellant it will ever require, and this quickly results in the need to carry
additional propellant just to propel the propellant. The breakthrough desired
in space travel is to eliminate the need to carry propellant at all, that is, to
generate a propulsive force without carrying and ejecting propellant?
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II. Historical Concepts for Extracting Energy and
Thermodynamic Considerations
The Casimir force is a force associated with the electromagnetic quantum vacuum
(Reference 5). This force is an attraction between parallel uncharged metallic plates
that has now been well measured and can be attributed to a minute imbalance in the
ZPF energy (ZPE) density inside the cavity between the plates versus the region outside
the plates as shown in Figure 1 (Reference 6-8). As shown in the figure, the vacuum is
full of virtual photons (that is, zero-point vacuum fluctuations), but photons with
wavelengths, 'A., more than twice the plate separation, d, are excluded from the space
between them, which causes the imbalance that pushes the plates together.
The primary requirement for space travel is energy. It is sometimes assumed that
attempting to extract energy from the vacuum ZPF would somehow violate the laws of
thermodynamics. Fortunately, it turns out that this is not the case. A thought
experiment published by Forward (Reference 9, 10) demonstrated how the Casimir
force could in principle be used to extract energy from the vacuum ZPF. Forward
showed that any pair of conducting plates at close distance experiences an attractive
Casimir force that is due to the electromagnetic ZPF of the vacuum. A "vacuum­
fluctuation battery" can be constructed by using the Casimir force to do work on a stack
of charged conducting plates as shown in Figure 2. By applying a charge of the same
polarity to each conducting plate, a repulsive electrostatic force will be produced that
opposes the Casimir force. If the applied electrostatic force is adjusted to be always
slightly less than the Casimir force, the plates will move toward each other and the
Casimir force will add energy to the electric field between the plates. The battery can be
recharged by making the electrical force slightly stronger than the Casimir force to re­
expand the foliated conductor.
Figure 1. Illustration of the Casimir Effect Figure 2. Vacuum-Fluctuation Battery (Reference 9)
Cole and Puthoff (Reference 11) verified that (generic) energy extraction schemes are
not contradictory to the laws of thermodynamics. For thermodynamically reversible
=
processes, no heat will flow at temperature T 0. However, for thermodynamically
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irreversible processes, heat can be produced and made to flow, either at T = 0 or at
any other T > 0 situation, such as by taking a system out of mechanical equilibrium.
Moreover, work can be done by or done on physical systems, either at T = 0 or T > 0
situations, whether for a reversible or irreversible process. However, if one is
considering a net cyclical process on the basis of, say, the Casimir effect, then energy
would not be able to be continually extracted without a violation of the second law of
thermodynamics. Thus, Forward's process cannot be cycled to yield a continuous
extraction of energy. Here, the recharging of the battery would, owing to frictional and
other losses, require more energy than is gained from the ZPF. There is no useful
engine cycle in this process; nonetheless, the plate-contraction phase of the cycle does
demonstrate the ability to cause "extraction" of energy from the ZPF. It does reflect
work done by the ZPF on matter.
Another illustrative example of an early scheme for extracting energy from the ZPF is
described in a patent by Mead and Nachamkin (Reference 12). They propose that a set
of resonant dielectric spheres be used to extract energy from the ZPF and convert it
into electrical power. They consider the use of resonant dielectric spheres, slightly
detuned from each other, to provide a beat