Researchers Devise Method to Control Quantum Vacuum Fluctuations for Unidirectional Energy Transfer Between Two Nanodevices

By: William Brown, Biophysicist at the Resonance Science Foundation

A fundamental outcome of quantum field theory is the prediction of an ever-present non-zero energy in the vacuum state. In classical physics, a vacuum is totally devoid of energy or substance. In modern physics, all forces and associated particles are field-like, and their manifestation is a result of excitations of the respective quantum field. As such, according to quantum field theory, even in a vacuum there are quantum fields, and importantly these fields are always undergoing random excitations, even at the point where there should be zero energy—i.e., there are constitutive zero-point energy fluctuations.

These quantum vacuum energy fluctuations are not trivial, in the theory of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) they are what gives hadrons, like the proton, their mass. Within QCD...

By: William Brown, Biophysicist at the Resonance Science Foundation

In a previous article RSF physicist Dr. Ines Urdaneta discussed a proposed study for probing the Unruh effect with quantum optics [1]. Because of the importance of experiments that will probe quantum effects in gravitational fields and to further elucidate the nature of the quantum vacuum, we will take another look at this proposed experiment and expound on some of the key insights of the study.

As Dr. Urdaneta explained in the previous article, the importance of probing the Unruh effect has to do with its relationship to quantum gravitational effects via the equivalence principle first described by Albert Einstein. Einstein is well known for his seminal work on the theory of relativity, which regards the behavior of clocks and rulers under accelerating and non-accelerating frames of reference, and the relativity of simultaneity that results from the invariance of the speed of light relative to any...