Chapter 12: Vacuum Zero Point Energy?

Quantum theory, one of the two cornerstones of modern physics, is known as the closest science to God.

Quantum theory predicts that the vacuum contains a huge amount of background energy, which still exists in absolute zero conditions. The energy in it is called the vacuum zero-point energy.

The idea of zero-point energy comes from a famous concept of quantum mechanics: the Heisenberg uncertainty principle.

This principle states that it is impossible to know the position and momentum of a particle at the same time with a high degree of accuracy. Therefore, when the temperature drops to absolute zero, the particle must still be vibrating. Otherwise, if the particle comes to a complete stop, then its momentum and position can be accurately measured at the same time, which is against the uncertainty principle.

The energy of this particle vibration at absolute zero {zero point vibration} is the zero point energy.

Therefore, this is what Dr. Rimbaud means by vacuum zero-point energy. In fact, humans can also use this energy in a small amount, that is, the Casimir effect.

In 1948, the Dutch physicist Hendrik Casimir proposed a scheme to detect the existence of this energy. Theoretically, vacuum energy appears in the form of particles and constantly forms and disappears on a tiny scale {called quantum rise and fall phenomenon}.

Under normal conditions, the vacuum is filled with particles of almost every wavelength, and Casimir believes that if two thin uncharged metal disks are made to lie close together, the longer wavelengths are excluded.

Then, other waves outside the metal disks generate a force that tends to bring them together, and the closer the metal disks are to each other, the stronger the attraction between the two.

This so-called Casimir effect was first measured by physicists in 1996, confirming the existence of the vacuum zero-point energy.

So, how big is the vacuum zero-point energy? The scientist Wheeler estimated that the energy density of vacuum can be as high as 10^95 g/cm^3. What is this concept? It can be said to be almost infinite ... In other words, the energy produced by the annihilation of matter in the whole universe may not be as much as 1 cubic centimeter of vacuum zero-point energy!

This energy is so powerful, much more powerful than nuclear energy, scientists can't help but start to fantasize, can people extract vacuum zero-point energy on a large scale?

Unfortunately, so far, no. The Casimir force shrinks rapidly as the scale of the system increases, and the problem, one can almost say, is insoluble.

With the current level of human beings, there is no way to utilize the vacuum zero-point energy, which involves several complex and esoteric fields, such as the Sea of Dirac, etc.

This is from the mysteries of the universe, the vast majority of scientists are still quite ignorant of this mysterious field of energy. The only thing people can do is to make two close metal plates slightly hot, and so on.

Because of this half-understanding, people know how difficult it is to achieve ... but now, this ship seems to be using zero-point energy, giving human energy.

Of course, what Rimbaud said, is completely speculation, there is no experimental basis.

"Guys, I'm making a hypothesis here that our kinetic energy is converted from vacuum zero-point energy, but of course it may not be, it's some other source of energy ... I think that kinetic energy is borrowed from zero-point energy or something, borrowed energy, I think it's to be returned. " Dr. Rimbaud spoke without surprise.

"Our speed is strictly in line with the ship, and when the ship takes off, we have the same speed, that is, borrowed energy from the vacuum, which becomes kinetic energy.

When the ship lands, our speed is zero, and the borrowed kinetic energy is silently returned, thus maintaining energy conservation throughout the process."

"During this process, energy acts directly in every quantum in our body, so it appears that we are not subject to forces ... Of course, this is a guess on my part."

"I'm sorry, our level of science can not explain this mechanism for the time being ... This is just a guess of mine, but it is likely to be the case." Rimbaud spread his hands and said somewhat helplessly.

In addition to the people of the Tesla Institute, everyone is almost down, what does it mean? Borrowed energy can be returned?

For example, someone boiled a pot of water with gas, suddenly, he changed his mind and did not want the pot of water, so he returned the heat energy from the boiling water to the gas, the water instantly became cold, and the gas was regenerated ...

It sounds so damn ridiculous ...

However, if you really use quantum theory to force an explanation, maybe it's really possible. Because according to quantum rise and fall, energy is generated for no reason and then turned into nothingness in a very short period of time.

If there is a technology that can make the energy generated greater than the energy turned into nothingness, assuming that at a certain moment, 100 copies of energy are quickly generated and 99 copies of energy are quickly annihilated, then it can be said that one copy of energy can be said to be extracted from the vacuum.

But this one copy of energy is still to be returned, only slower annihilation away, the entire energy generated by the quantum rise and fall will finally go to zero. That's probably what Rimbaud was trying to say.

"So, Dr. Rimbaud, what basis do you have to confirm your conjecture?"

"Of course I do." Rimbaud immediately said: "I observed that when the ship took off, we had the speed without the force. What about when the ship decelerates?"

"These days, our spaceship has been decelerating, but we humans are still not subjected to acceleration in the opposite direction. This means that the kinetic energy we have is slowly decreasing without the force, so I guess that this kinetic energy is returned to the vacuum."

"So, I had a new idea: since our kinetic energy was given by the vacuum zero-point energy or whatever energy, what would happen if we did not return this energy?"

Hearing this, many people were already fidgeting; Rimbaud's hypothesis was already very absurd, yet it seemed logical and sounded very bizarre. Someone suddenly asked, "Dr. Rimbaud, how can we not return this part of energy?"

"It's simple, escape from this ship! If I walk from the inside of the ship to the outside, this part of kinetic energy is taken by me from the inside of the ship to the outside, and most likely, I won't need to return this part of energy."

"To test this idea, I did some experiments and moved some large masses to the outside of the ship. But a new phenomenon arose, the speed of the ship was surprisingly reduced by a small amount!

This means that after I transferred the kinetic energy out, the overall energy of the ship decreased instead, which means that the ... ship helped us return that energy!"

People were silent, digesting the information given by Rimbaud.

Oliver did understand it. What does it mean? It means that the ship utilizes unknown technology that allows people to borrow energy from the zero point energy to ensure that they have the same speed as the ship, and when the ship's speed drops, this energy will be returned silently. In this way, the energy does not increase or decrease, maintaining a balance.

The vacuum is equivalent to a rich big debtor, want to borrow money, come to me, feel free to take, and do not want interest.

However, if the matter is transferred from the inside of the ship to the outside of the ship, the kinetic energy of the object also follows the transfer to the outside of the ship. It is equivalent to the debt run away, the vacuum is in a hurry, the monk can not run away from the temple, since the debt can not be found, only to the Noah ship itself to get back this part of the energy.

Then, the speed of the ship also reduced ...

What an amazing technology, what a strange phenomenon!

"To put it simply, how much kinetic energy we transfer out of it, how much the kinetic energy of the ship will be reduced, which should satisfy the following equation ..." Dr. Rimbaud began to demonstrate his report on the screen again, listing out a long list of equations.

"I'm sorry to ask, but do your findings make any practical sense?" Oliver raised his hand in gesture.

"Hello Mr. Yu, we think that the ship can be accelerated or decelerated according to this phenomenon."

Rimbaud said, "The mass of the ship is constant at about 1.03 million tons, if we eject an object with 3 times the mass of the ship, the ship will return a lot of kinetic energy for this object, and it will immediately decelerate to half of the original speed."

"If, for example, an object of 8 times the mass of the ship is ejected. The ship's speed would be reduced to one-third of its original speed! This deceleration process is almost instantaneous, you understand, this is a new way of deceleration in cosmic space!"

"Under macroscopic low-speed conditions, the deceleration formula satisfies v1=√{m0/m1}*v0. m0 is the original mass of the ship, and m1 is the sum of the mass of the ship and the mass of the projectile."

"According to this formula, we design a scheme for the fast deceleration of the spaceship, and the speed of the spaceship will drop down quickly as long as the large masses are constantly thrown out."

"Conversely, keep throwing large masses, possessing kinetic energy, into the spaceship. The speed of the spaceship will increase ... Vacuum is a really big debtor, it will never ask for your money, it will only superimpose this energy onto the spaceship."

Everyone was stunned, what does this mean? Throw something out and be able to slow down, throw something in and still speed up, there is such a good thing?

What a god-like technology ...

However, after discussing for a while, the scientists found that they could not use this method to accelerate the ship. The reason is simple, to throw a large mass of objects into the ship, it must fly faster than the ship, which will require more advanced engines to do.

If there is an engine that can make objects fly faster, it would be better to install the engine directly on the ship!

However, it is good to use to slow down, as long as the matter is directly thrown out of the ship, the speed will be reduced. This is a good point, in the space, deceleration is also a trouble ah.

"This deceleration scheme, we will name it beyond deceleration scheme!"

Just keep throwing matter out of the ship to decelerate, what a simple, practical scheme, much more affordable than rocket reverse jet!

At this moment, because of this discovery, because of this one paper, the Tesla Institute's points began to approach, and even surpass, the Coyote Design Bureau!

It doesn't matter if you can't read it, as long as you know that pushing things from the inside to the outside of the ship will reduce the speed of the ship. This is something we may use later.

Note: Quantum theory is really amazing science, almost nothing is impossible.

There is a theory that the origin of the universe began with a quantum rise and fall.

Quantum ups and downs, "borrowing" energy from the vacuum to produce particles {up} and "returning" it to the vacuum {down} within a time specified by the energy-time uncertainty, which is uncertain and usually considered to be very short. After a rise and fall, it is equivalent to nothing happening, but the conservation of energy is broken during the very short uncertainty time.

In 1998, scientist Gus also published a popular book on the cosmic upsurge, and one of his favorite sayings was, "The universe itself is a free lunch." Meaning that the universe came from nothing, but in time, it may return all the energy to the vacuum, and this may be a long, long time.

My setting is based on this phenomenon of quantum rise and fall, the kinetic energy inside the ship, provided by the vacuum zero-point energy, can be returned after borrowing, that's roughly it, I don't know if you understand it or not.}