From e-catworld.com: Zero-Point Energy Paper: "Emergent quantization from a dynamic vacuum" (Harold White, et. al.):
Thanks to ECW reader Tim John for posting a link to a tweet by Sabine Hossenfelder.
The topic of zero-point energy came up on a recent video put out by well-known YouTube physicist Sabine Hossenfelder. She reviewed a recent paper by a team led by former NASA engineer and physicist Harold “Sonny” White titled “Emergent quantization from a dynamic vacuum” in the Journal Physical Review Research (
https://journals.aps.org/prresearch/pdf/10.1103/l8y7-r3rm)
It is a difficult paper to understand for the non-expert. Here is Hossenfelder’s summary from her video:
" The new paper explores the idea that what we call empty space might behave like a physical medium in which waves can travel. … The authors imagine that the vacuum has properties similar to a material with density and elasticity. So disturbances in it travel like sound waves. In their model, a proton changes the properties of this vacuum medium around it. Waves traveling through the modified vacuum then form standing patterns and those patterns turn out to have the same shapes and energy levels as the familiar orbitals of the hydrogen atom. From this perspective, the quantized energy levels of hydrogen would not be a basic rule of quantum mechanics,but would instead arise naturally from the way waves resonate in the vacuum around the proton."
Hossenfelder is skeptical of the theory (she gives the theory a 9 out of 10 chance of being BS) but this is not surprising. Zero-point energy as a practical source of energy is typically ruled out by most scientists.
White has formed a company named Casimir, Inc. which is developing a product that they call “Casimir cavities” that they claim harvest energy from the quantum field to produce a continuous power source that could replace batteries in certain circumstances.
Here is a clip of Harold White talking about some of the applications that are suitable for his technology:
https://youtu.be/MU99MBhv-hU
Very interesting comments to this post as well!
