Wednesday, December 9, 2009

A Blueprint for a Quantum Propulsion Machine | MIT Technology Review

A Blueprint for a Quantum Propulsion Machine | MIT Technology Review: ...the quantum vacuum constantly interacts with magnetoelectric materials generating Lorentz forces. Most of the time, however, these forces sum to zero.

However, Feigel says there are four cases in which the forces do not sum to zero...

The first method is to rapidly aggregate a number of magnetoelectric nanoparticles, a process which influences the boundary conditions for higher frequency electromagnetic waves, generating a force.

The second is simply to rotate a group of magnetoelectric nanoparticles, which also generates a Lorentz force.

Either way, the result is a change in velocity. As Feigel puts it: “mechanical action of quantum vacuum on magneto-electric objects may be observable and have a significant value.”

The beauty of Feigel’s idea is that it can be easily tested. He suggests building an addressable array of magnetoelectric nanoparticles, perhaps made of a material such as FeGaO3 which has a magnetoelectric constant of 10^-4 in a weak magnetic field.

No comments:

Post a Comment