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August 26th, 2006, 09:20 AM
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Originally Posted by topsquark Another, possibly related, energy production scheme is to use the "zero-point" energy of the vacuum.
The energy of the vacuum is postulated to be infinite. The calculations of Quantum Field Theory indicate that all fields are similar to quantum harmonic oscillators. QHOs have the interesting feature that even when the system is in its ground state, the system has some small residual energy. Since quantum fields have an effectively infinite number of oscillators (according to the model) there is an infinite amount of energy contained in the system, even if the system is in its ground state, ie. the vacuum. This "left-over" energy is known as the "zero-point energy." (Incidentally, this feature of QFT is the reason we need to "renormalize" the theory...in order to get any sensible answers we need to have a way to get rid of the infinities.)
Even if the zero-point energy isn't simply an artifact of the way the theory is calculated, how could we possibly extract energy from it? The zero-point energy represents the smallest possible energy state of the system. If we extract energy from it, we are lowering the energy state. A contradiction | There are some pretty strange effects associated with the vacuum, and they
are worth exploring.
Also, since a significant part of the physics community believe that it is
possible that the Universe is a free lunch, the possibility of harnessing
what we now only partially understand should not be ruled out.
Conservation of energy is a consequence of time shift symmetry in the
laws of physics, which is a symmetry we should not be surprised to find
is broken in some way.
RonL
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August 26th, 2006, 10:22 AM
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And only the fact that they chose to publish an announcement of their "discovery" on the Economist, shows that they are not interested in the views of scientists but in luring new investors.
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August 26th, 2006, 07:07 PM
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Quote: |
Originally Posted by CaptainBlack There are some pretty strange effects associated with the vacuum, and they
are worth exploring.
Also, since a significant part of the physics community believe that it is
possible that the Universe is a free lunch, the possibility of harnessing
what we now only partially understand should not be ruled out.
Conservation of energy is a consequence of time shift symmetry in the
laws of physics, which is a symmetry we should not be surprised to find
is broken in some way.
RonL | I'm always open for new Physics. 
Actually, it is likely that time symmetry (T) is broken in modern Physics. Quantum Field Theory postulates that CPT symmetry (C = Charge conjugation, P = Parity) must remain unbroken and since CP violation has been measured (the weak nuclear force violates it) there MUST be a violation in T somewhere to compensate. As far as I know nobody has measured it happening, though.
Is energy conservation violated? Possibly. But only on the quantum level, and it seems to me that we would only be talking about small energy violations in that case. However, since no one knows where the T violation occurs and at what level, anything could be possible.
The bad news for Steorn is that QED (ie. the electromagnetic field) respects T symmetry.
-Dan
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"I must not fear. Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." - The Litany Against Fear, "Dune" by Frank Herbert |
August 27th, 2006, 05:49 AM
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(Sigh) I was tired last night, can you tell?
T is the "time reversal" symmetry. It has nothing to do with time translation invariance, which generates conservation of energy. Ah well.
Anyway, mostly similar comments to my previous post apply except that, of course, all theories are presumably time translation invariant because energy conservation is implied for all Physics. (This is related to the afore-mentioned CPT symmetry, but they are not the same. I do believe that if CPT is broken then so is energy conservation but I might be wrong about that.)
-Dan
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"I must not fear. Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." - The Litany Against Fear, "Dune" by Frank Herbert | | Thread Tools | | | | Display Modes |  Linear Mode | 
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