The Casimir Effect Heats Up

[junglelord]

Number 811 #1, February 7, 2007 by Phil Schewe, Ben Stein, and Davide Castelvecchi
The Casimir Effect Heats Up

For the first time, a group led by Nobel laureate Eric Cornell at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Colorado in Boulder has confirmed a 1955 prediction, by physicist Evgeny Lifschitz, that temperature affects the Casimir force, the attraction between two objects when they come to within 5 millionths of a meter (approximately 1/5,000 of an inch) of each other or less. These efforts heighten the understanding of the force and enable future experiments to better account for its effects.

Tiny as it is, the Casimir effect causes parts in nano- and microelectromechanical systems (NEMS and MEMS) to stick together. It confounds tabletop experimental efforts to detect exotic new forces beyond those predicted by Newtonian gravity and the Standard Model of particle physics.

In their work, the researchers investigated the Casimir-Polder force, the attraction between a neutral atom and a nearby surface. The Colorado group sent ultracold rubidium atoms to within a few microns of a glass surface. Doubling the temperature of the glass to 600 degrees Kelvin while keeping the surroundings near room temperature caused the glass to increase its attractive force threefold, confirming theoretical predictions recently made by the group's theorist co-authors in Trento, Italy.

What was happening here? The Casimir force arises from effects of the vacuum (empty space). According to quantum mechanics, the vacuum contains fleeting electromagnetic waves, in turn consisting of electric and magnetic fields. The electric fields can slightly rearrange the charge in atoms. Such "polarized" atoms can then feel a force from an electric field. The vacuum's electric fields are altered by the presence of the glass, creating a region of maximum electric field that attracts the atoms. In addition, heat inside the glass also drives the fleeting electromagnetic waves, some of which leak onto the surface as "evanescent waves." These evanescent waves have a maximum electric field on the surface and further attract the atoms.

Electromagnetic waves from heat in the rest of the environment would usually cancel out the thermal attraction from the glass surface. However, dialing up the temperature on the glass tilts the playing field in favor of glass's thermal force and heightens the attraction between the wall and the atoms.

Obrecht et al., Physical Review Letters, 9 February 2007
Also see the NIST press release

http://www.aip.org/pnu/2007/split/811-1.html

[redeye]

According to quantum mechanics, the vacuum contains fleeting electromagnetic waves, in turn consisting of electric and magnetic fields.

Electricity....in a vacuum....surely there must be some mistake!

Cheers!

[junglelord]

Essentially, the Casimir effect generates real photons (not virtual photons) between two magnetically aligned electrons, which are also a specific distance apart. The photons are then absorbed by atoms and converted to electrons via the photoelectric effect. Hence visible matter appears where none was before.

The same process is hypothesized to occur between protons, only in this case, the modern physics calls the process fusion, and not the Casimir effect. Fusion is also the creation of matter.

Both processes explain why there appears to be an expansion of the Universe. It also explains how galaxies can give birth to new galaxies without destroying the mother galaxy.
David Thomson

The generation of matter is intrinsic to both APM and Scalar Field Theory. I thought its important to note that important observation. APM as noted above and neutrions into electrons at the earths reactor core in Scalar Field Theory. So Matter and EM from the earths core and the vaccum is a possibly valid concept not to be ignored.

[Birkeland]

Matter and EM from the earths core and the vaccum is a possibly valid concept not to be ignored.

Research in a Vacuum: DARPA Tries to Tap Elusive Casimir Effect for Breakthrough Technology

[altonhare]

What kind of sense can it make to say that vacuum (empty space, nothing) "contains" EM waves? A box or any other THING can contain another thing. How can the absence of an object contain anything?

A much more important question, however, is whether these researchers have actually explained what they observe. Do they actually understand anything, or are they merely describing the event? Objectively they heated some glass and measured how far the atoms moved toward it. That's all they know.

Does all this talk of waves and fields and forces actually illuminate, i.e. produce understanding, or is it an effort to disguise the researchers' ignorance in jargon? To make a quantitative desription sound like an explanation? Newton's mathematical description was mistook for an explanation because it sounded very physical with words like "force" and "mass", but formalisms such as Jacobi-Hamilton boil it down to essentials, simply a description of motion.

[Birkeland]

What kind of sense can it make to say that vacuum (empty space, nothing) "contains" EM waves?

It depends on the definition. A vacuum could mean:

• A. Absence of matter.
  B. A space empty of matter.
  C. A space relatively empty of matter.
  D. A space in which the pressure is significantly lower than atmospheric pressure.

C and D is not necessarily empty.

[altonhare]

What kind of sense can it make to say that vacuum (empty space, nothing) "contains" EM waves?

It depends on the definition. A vacuum could mean:

• A. Absence of matter.
  B. A space empty of matter.
  C. A space relatively empty of matter.
  D. A space in which the pressure is significantly lower than atmospheric pressure.

C and D is not necessarily empty.

The Casimir force arises from effects of the vacuum (empty space).

[Lloyd]

* Altonhare: NIST] wrote: The Casimir force arises from effects of the vacuum (empty space).

* Obviously, when people talk about space as something, they don't mean something that's nothing. Matter isn't the only thing that can have volume. The medium between subatomic particles of matter is a something, not a nothing. If it were nothing, it would have no dimensions or volume.

[StevenO]

Essentially, the Casimir effect generates real photons (not virtual photons) between two magnetically aligned electrons, which are also a specific distance apart. The photons are then absorbed by atoms and converted to electrons via the photoelectric effect. Hence visible matter appears where none was before.

The same process is hypothesized to occur between protons, only in this case, the modern physics calls the process fusion, and not the Casimir effect. Fusion is also the creation of matter.

Both processes explain why there appears to be an expansion of the Universe. It also explains how galaxies can give birth to new galaxies without destroying the mother galaxy.
David Thomson

The generation of matter is intrinsic to both APM and Scalar Field Theory. I thought its important to note that important observation. APM as noted above and neutrions into electrons at the earths reactor core in Scalar Field Theory. So Matter and EM from the earths core and the vaccum is a possibly valid concept not to be ignored.

The Casimir effect is basically a rewrite of Newton's gravitional formula or Coulomb's electrostatic formula in other dimensions. Thus it is another form of a Unifield Field equation describing the compound forces of gravity and the base photon field emitted by all matter. The magical attractive effect comes from the fact that gravity has always been neglected at small scales. So the effect is nothing exotic, but people rather listen to nice fairy tales. It's only human.

[Birkeland]

The magical attractive effect comes from the fact that gravity has always been neglected at small scales.

Sounds plausible, but then again: what is gravity?

[altonhare]

* Altonhare: NIST] wrote: The Casimir force arises from effects of the vacuum (empty space).

* Obviously, when people talk about space as something, they don't mean something that's nothing. Matter isn't the only thing that can have volume. The medium between subatomic particles of matter is a something, not a nothing. If it were nothing, it would have no dimensions or volume.

Of course not. Now back to using every synonym for nothing in the thesaurus.