​​​Experimental design of a semiconductor propulsion device using the dynamic Casimir effect to transfer momentum to an object by interactionwieh the electromagnetic field ground state.

"One of the most surprising predictions of modern quantum theory is that the vacuum of space is not empty. In fact, quantum theory predicts that it teams

with particles flitting in and out of existence." Christopher Wilson, Chalmers University, Sweden, in his paper "Observation of the Dynamical Casimir

Effect in a Superconducting Circuit." arxiv.org/abs/1105,471If two conductive plates are held close together and parallel to each other they will be pushed together when the gap between them is smaller than the wavelength of some of the virtual particles. This causes the vacuum pressure inside the gap to be less than the vacuum pressure outside, forcing the plates together.

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This force is the static Casimir effect. It was first measured by two teams in the US in 1998. When the conductors are separated by distance of about 10 atomic diameters, the Casimir force is roughly equal to air pressure at sea level; about 96,000 N per square meter.

 

Another force, the dynamical Casimir effect, is produced when a single conductive plate is moved at relativistic speed. At slow speeds, virtual

particles can adapt to the conductor's movement and continue to come into existence in pairs and then disappear as they annihilate each other.

However when the speed of the conductor approaches the speed of the photons; i.e. at an appreciable fraction of the speed of light, some photons

become real causing the moving conductor to transfer momentum from empty space and produce light.

 

It is mechanically impossible to move a large area conductor at relativistic speed over a significant distance. Wilson, cited above, modulated a

superconducting quantum interference device to achieve about 5% of the speed of light over the distance of about a nanometer near a transmission

line a hundred micrometers long. This movement produced microwave photons. It was the first experimental observation of the force produced by the

dynamical Casimir effect.

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The device operates by changing the position of the conductive region in a large scale (cm to meters) semiconductor structure by successively applying

an electric field at different positions in the semiconductor structure without requiring mechanical motion. Movement of a large area conductor through a

large distance at relativistic velocity produces a dynamical Casimir force strong enough to be useful for propulsion and for other purposes.

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