Zero Point Energy By William Lama, Ph.D
The Zero-Point Energy Field and Psychic Phenomena | (psychicschool.com)
Zero Point Energy (ZPE) is a weird quantum mechanical substance that is real, but hard to describe. Nobel Prize winning physicist, and my science hero, Dick Feynman tells a story about his inability to explain ZPE to his father. What is Science? – Richard Feynman
You might wonder what my father got out of it all. I went to MIT. I went to Princeton. I came home, and he said, "Now you've got a science education. I have always wanted to know something that I have never understood, and so, my son, I want you to explain it to me."
I said yes.
He said, "I understand that they say that light is emitted from an atom when it goes from one state to another, from an excited state to a state of lower energy.
I said, "That's right."
"And light is a kind of particle, a photon, I think they call it."
"Yes."
"So, if the photon comes out of the atom when it goes from the excited to the lower state, the photon must have been in the atom in the excited state."
I said, "Well, no."
He said, "Well, how do you look at it so you can think of a particle photon coming out without it having been in there in the excited state?"
I thought a few minutes, and said, "I'm sorry; I don't know.”
I suspect that Feynman did know about Dirac’s 1927 theory that ZPE was responsible for spontaneous emission of photons, but he didn’t want to explain the odd idea to his dad. Dirac’s quantum electrodynamics predicted that a fluctuating zero-point energy field exists even in the absence of sources. Spontaneous emission of a photon "can be thought of as forced emission taking place under the action of the fluctuating field."
As I said, quantum mechanics is weird, because nature at the micro-level is weird. And anyone who claims to understand quantum mechanics is delusional. At most she knows the rules and can use them to compute measurable physical quantities, such as Zero Point Energy.
What the heck is ZPE?
In classical physics all particles have kinetic and potential energy. Temperature, for example, arises from the intensity of random particle motion caused by kinetic energy (known as Brownian motion). As temperature is reduced to absolute zero, it might be thought that kinetic energy will be zero as the particles come to rest. In fact, however, kinetic energy is retained by particles even at the lowest possible temperature. For example, liquid helium does not freeze under atmospheric pressure even at the lowest temperature due to its zero-point energy. The random motion corresponding to the zero-point energy never vanishes as a consequence of the “uncertainty principle” of quantum mechanics. This is weird.
The vacuum is understood to be the absence of all matter, but the vacuum can contain electromagnetic energy. In the quantum vacuum the energy is lowest, the Zero Point. The ZPE at any point in space is not fixed; rather it fluctuates with time according to Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle:
ΔE ΔT = h/4π. (h is Planck’s constant)
The ZPE ΔE lasts for a time ΔT, then disappears, then reappears again, ad infinitum.
Given the equivalence of mass and energy expressed by Einstein's famous equation
E = mc2, (c is the speed of light)
the ZPE at any point in space can be transformed into particles with mass m.
These “virtual particles” spontaneously flash into existence due to the energy ΔE of the quantum fluctuations. If the ZPE produces an electron (-) it must also produce its anti-particle, a positron (+). Due to the Uncertainty Principle the pair will only live for a time ΔT before annihilating and producing energy ZPE = ΔE.
The Energy of the Vacuum. Quantum Vacuum Fluctuations and the… | by Marco Tavora
Can we observe ZPE
Rather, I should say can we observe the effects of ZPE on the macro-scale? Zero Point Energy can be seen in action in the experiment known as the Casimir effect. Consider what happens if you arrange two mirrors facing each other in empty space. Your first reaction might be “nothing at all.” In fact, however, the mirrors are mutually attracted to each other. This startling phenomenon was first predicted in 1948 by the Dutch physicist Hendrik Casimir. Look at the gap between the mirrors.
All electromagnetic fields, including the ZPE vacuum fluctuations, have a “spectrum” containing many different frequencies. Between the mirrors, where the e-m field is reflected back and forth, it is amplified when integer multiples of half-a-wavelength can fit exactly between the mirrors; this is a “cavity resonance.” For other frequencies the field energy is suppressed. Vacuum fluctuation energies are suppressed or enhanced depending on whether their frequency corresponds to a cavity resonance.
Propagating electromagnetic fields exert pressure on surfaces. This radiation pressure increases with the frequency of the e-m field. At a cavity resonance frequency, the radiation pressure inside the cavity is stronger than outside and the mirrors are pushed apart. Out of resonance, in contrast, the radiation pressure inside the cavity is smaller than outside and the mirrors are drawn towards each other.
Fantasy ZPE
Zero Point Energy has been the stuff of thrillers. “Black Order” tells the story of a Nazi program to harness Zero Point Energy. Near the end of WWII, Nazi scientists escaped from an underground laboratory with the ingredients, designs and plans to use ZPE for nefarious purposes. Black Order: A Sigma Force Novel - Kindle edition by Rollins, James.
The scientists fled to secret labs in Nepal and South Africa where they perfected the ZPE technology. The most lethal product was the ZPE Bomb. The most sinister was the ZPE Bell, a device that was used to irradiate pregnant women with ZPE radiation thereby producing mutant babies with superhuman powers - a revived Aryan master race. The project was a pet of SS head Heinrich Himmler. The black sun is used by the neo-Nazis as a substitute for the swastika and a symbol for the mystic energy source intended to renew the Aryan race.
Himmler’s Black Sun from Wewelsburg castle in Germany, an SS headquarters
Fortunately, the Nazis ran into a minor snag in their ZPE Bell program. While the babies had super-human powers, their bodies soon began to decay. The Master Race flames out again. Gute Befreiung!
Zero Point energy is also a central concept in the popular video game Fortnite. The Zero Point possesses the power to alter reality. As seen during the Zero Crisis Finale, the Zero Point sends out reality waves that alter the very fabric of time and space.
Zero Point Story Trailer for Fortnite Chapter 2 - Season 5 - YouTube
Brain Energy
The Zero Point Energy state of the brain is thought to be the most restful state of the brain, its only activities being healing and regeneration. Researchers think that the energy of the brain gets converted into “dark energy” during its cognitive activities.
Marcus Raichle’s study of brain scans challenged the neuroscience assumption that the resting brain only leapt into action in response to an external event. The ZPE of the brain “arises from spontaneous fluctuations in the blood oxygen level of the brain.”
The brain is never at rest, even when the senses slumber and the mind is at rest. “The Dark Energy of the Brain,” with Dr. Marcus Raichle
The Brain's Dark Energy - Scientific American
I’ll conclude with the quantum calculation of the Zero Point Energy. The most advanced Quantum Field Theory calculation yields a value that is 120 orders of magnitude larger than the value obtained from experiments. Oops! This discrepancy has been called "the worst theoretical prediction in the history of physics".
Cosmological constant problem - Wikipedia
Maybe that’s what Feynman meant by "I'm sorry; I don't know.”
Dr. William Lama has a PhD in physics from the University of Rochester. Taught physics in college and worked at Xerox as a principle scientist and engineering manager. Upon retiring, joined the PVIC docents; served on the board of the RPV Council of Home Owners Associations; served as a PV Library trustee for eight years; served on the PV school district Measure M oversight committee; was president of the Malaga Cove Homeowner's Association. Writes about science, technology and politics, mostly for his friends.
email: wlama2605@gmail.com
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