Re: Can the zero point energy field be tapped?

Hi Dale,

Yes, that's a very clear explanation. Actually, your design would work fine if it used ordinary electrons and electric fields, instead of virtual particles and "Casimir fields". (It would be called an "ion engine", and it would need a normal power supply of course. :) )

The Casimir Effect doesn't work like a regular force - it's not like an electrical force that can latch on to individual particles and pull them around. In the example with the two plates, the Casimir Effect exerts a force on the plates because of a boundary condition set up by the electrical conductivity of the plate. The presence of the plates means that some virtual particles "can't fit" into the gap, which means that the gap has a lower energy density, which leads to a force. I think that this force would be better described as a "pressure" from outside, rather than an "attraction" between the plates. The virtual-photon fields outside of your Casimir box are exerting a pressure; due to the conductive plates the pressure is lower inside; thus there is a force!

So, between the plates or anywhere else, there should be no force on an individual particle, virtual or real, between the plates. The plates are pushed together by the ambient pressure from outside, not pulled together by an attractive force.

In any case - it's a very general rule that you CANNOT extract energy from the zero-point fields (quantum vacuum fluctuations). In field theory, you describe these fluctuations as consisting of virtual particle-antiparticle pairs. Each pair is allowed to "violate" conservation of energy, but only briefly - sort of only for the purpose of popping into existence and right back out. If something interacts with the virtual particle pair during its brief "energy theft", the violation is quickly rectified. For example, if a high-energy kaon crashes into a "virtual" electron-positron pair, the electron and positron can become real - they can obtain energy, momentum, and mass - only if this energy is extracted somehow from the kaon. If the kaon does not give them at least their mass-energy, they quickly vanish without a trace. In either case (either stealing energy from a real particle, or vanishing without interacting) virtual particles are NOT a source of free energy. This description, called quantum electrodynamics, is one of the best-tested theories in physics.

Hope this is helpful!

-Ben