AN ELECTROMAGNETIC BASIS FOR INERTIA AND GRAVITATION: WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR 21st CENTURY PHYSICS AND TECHNOLOGY?

The basis of most modern technology is the manipulation of electromagnetic phenomena. Haisch, Rueda and Puthoff (1994a) published a controversial but substantive formulation of a concept proposing an explanation of inertia of matter as an electromagnetic phenomenon originating in the zero-point field (ZPF) of the quantum vacuum. This suggests that Newton’s equation of motion can be derived from Maxwell’s equations of electrodynamics, in that inertial mass is postulated to be not an intrinsic property of matter but rather a kind of electromagnetic drag force (which temporarily is a place holder for a more general quantum vacuum reaction effect) that proves to be acceleration dependent by virtue of the spectral characteristics of the ZPF. Moreover the principle of equivalence implies that in this view gravitation would also be electromagnetic in origin along the lines proposed by Sakharov (1968). A NASA-funded research effort has been underway at the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto and at California State University in Long Beach to develop and test these ideas. An effort to generalize the 1994 ZPF-inertia concept into a proper relativistic formulation has been successful. With regard to the goals of the NASA Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Program we can, on the basis of the ZPF-inertia concept, definitively rule out one speculatively hypothesized propulsion mechanism: matter possessing negative inertial mass, a concept originated by Bondi (1957). The existence of this is shown to be logically impossible. On the other hand, the linked ZPF-inertia and ZPF-gravity concepts open the conceptual possibility of manipulation of inertia and gravitation, since both are postulated to be electromagnetic phenomena. Whether this will translate into actual technological potential, especially with respect to spacecraft propulsion and future interstellar travel capability, is an open question. The (possibly comparable) time scale for translation of Einstein’s E = mc mass-energy relation into nuclear technology was approximately four decades. A key question is whether the proposed ZPF-matter interactions generating the phenomenon of mass might involve one or more resonances. This is presently under investigation.