part0030

Starting from first principles and general assumptions we present a heuristic argument that shows that Newton's law of gravitation and Coloumb’s law of electricity naturally arise in a theory in which space emerges through a zero- point fluctuation of the quantum vacuum. Gravity is identified with a casimir force caused by quantum vacuum fluctuations due to the presence of material bodies in it or the distortion of the vacuum through its interaction with mass. A relativistic generalization of the presented arguments directly leads to the Einstein equations. When space is emergent even Newton's law of inertia needs to be explained. The equivalence principle suggests that it is actually the law of inertia whose origin is casimir.

The real origin of gravity is one of the most important, complex and substantially yet unsolved questions in Physics. The replacement of the Newtonian model of gravity with the Einstein’s one given by General Relativity (GR) has only shifted the question without solving it. Within GR, gravity has two possible interpretations: a field one and a geometric one. According to the latter, that has become the prevalent one, gravity is due to the curvature of the space – time “tissue”, represented as a “rubber sheet”, due to the presence of a mass. Nevertheless, this is a purely mathematical description telling nothing about the physical mechanism starting the motion. In fact, even supposing the existence, in the neighbouring of a source mass, of a curved four – dimensional manifold it doesn’t explain why a second particle at rest should move towards the source mass.

As such, it invites attempts at derivation from a more fundamental set of underlying assumptions, and six such attempts are outlined in the standard reference book Gravitation, by Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler (MTW). ' Of the six approaches presented in MTW, perhaps the most far-reaching in its implications for an underlying model is one due to Sakharov; namely, that gravitation is not a fundamental interaction at all, but rather an induced effect brought about by changes in the quantum fluctuation energy of the vacuum when matter is present . ' In this view the attractive gravitational force is more akin to the induced van der Waals and Casimir forces, than to the fundamental Coulomb force. Although speculative when first introduced by Sakharov in 1967, this hypothesis has led to a rich and ongoing literature on quantum-fluctuation-induced gravity that continues to be of interest.

In this approach the presence of matter in the vacuum is taken to constitute a kind of set of boundaries as in a generalized Casimir effect, and the question of how quantum fluctuations of the vacuum under these circumstances can lead to an action and metric that reproduce Einstein gravity has been addressed from several viewpoints.

Therefore in this chapter we want to show that gravitation might be not a fundamental interaction but a byproduct of the electromagnetic interaction, precisely an electromagnetic phenomena induced by the presence of matter in the quantum vacuum (the quantum field that is present even in empty space). Which means that, matter is not just there but is in the quantum vacuum, and therefore interacts with it, causing some kind of quantum fluctuation energy, that fluctuation is gravitation. In simple terms, a body immersed in quantum fields will interact with them causing gravity to manifest.

Haisch, Rueda, and others have made the claim that the origin of inertial reaction forces can be explained as the interaction of electrically charged elementary particles with the vacuum electromagnetic zero-point field expected on the basis of quantum field theory.

Gravity is treated as a residuum force in the manner of casimir or vander waals forces. Expressed in the most rudimentary way this can be viewed as follows. The zero point field causes a given charged particle to oscillate. Such oscillations give rise to secondary electromagnetic fields. An adjacent charged particle will thus experience both the zero point field driving forces causing it to oscillate, and in addition forces due to the secondary fields produced by the zero point field driven oscillations of the first particle. Similarly, the zero point field driven oscillations of the second particle will cause their own secondary fields acting back upon the first particle. The net effect is an attractive force between the particles.

For the interaction between two particles, each mass experiences a background zero point field and a zero point driven dipole field of the other mass.

Two masses A and D ( taken here to be equal for ease of discussion) with D located a distance R from A, along the positive z axis of a coordinate system centered at A. The zero point field will cause a charged particle A to oscillate. The oscillations will then give rise to a secondary electromagnetic field , which will cause particle D to oscillate. In the same way, the zero point field driven oscillations of particle D will cause their own secondary fields acting back upon particle A. the net effect will be an attractive force between particles A and D that will cause one to move towards the other with a small acceleration

in the weak field limit.

Analogous to the Compton Effect, the wavelength of the electromagnetic waves emitted or scattered as a result of particle A interacting with the quantum vacuum will be given as,

- is the strong magnetic field (greater than or equal to the critical value, which can create electron-positron pairs from the quantum vacuum). The Schwinger mechanism has two cornerstones, the first one is the existence of quantum vacuum and the second one the existence of an external electric field (which attempts to separate electrons and positrons). There are no particles in the vacuum (in that sense the vacuum is empty); but the vacuum is plenty of short-living virtual particle-antiparticle pairs which in permanence appear and disappear (allowed by time- energy uncertainty relation). A “virtual” pair can be converted into a real electron-positron pair only in the presence of a strong external field, which can spatially separate electrons and positrons, by pushing them in opposite directions, as it does an electric field. Therefore the zero point field or quantum vacuum exists but with an external magnetic field stronger than the critical value such that when a particle A is immersed in this zero point field or quantum vacuum, it will interact with the quantum vacuum causing quantum vacuum fluctuations which will trigger the external magnetic field causing oscillation of particle A giving rise to secondary electromagnetic fields.

B- is the value of the magnetic field that exists between particle A and D. This value depends only on the masses of the particles. In other words it is the magnetic field that depends on the matter constituents of the particles in question irrespective of the distance.

- is the reduced Compton wavelength

and α is a dimensionless coupling constant.

It must be noted that, in the weak field limit, the resistance which defines the inertia of a particle is, ultimately, electromagnetic resistance caused by the zero point field on the particle, and it is this resistance which produces gravitational waves with a wavelength of due to a state of motion of a particle,

From the above given assumption, it is proposed that a body’s inertia is due, to the distribution of matter in the universe, and, more precisely, to the electromagnetic interaction that arises from quantum fluctuations of the zero point field in accelerated frames. Basically, a particle’s inertia is a function of the particle’s interaction with zero point field. Inertia is resistance to acceleration and this reistance causes a form of the gravitational wave simply because resistance becomes a force. This implies that, the resistance which defines the inertia of a particle is, ultimately, electromagnetic resistance caused by the zero point field on the particle.

It must therefore be true that under a condition where,

, we recover Newton’s law of inertia (F=ma) as,

Therefore matter continuosly interacts with the zero point field (as Casimir effect), and this interaction yields a force ( the resistance to motion) whenever acceleration takes place. Inertia is due to the distortion of the zero point fluctuations in an accelerated reference frame. Technically, inertia is due to the high frequencies of the distortion of the zero point spectrum.

For the interaction between two masses, each mass experiences a background zero point field and a zero point field driven dipole field of the other mass. The procedure followed here is precisely that developed by Boyer for the derivation of the retarded van der waals forces at all distances between a pair of polarizable particles. Therefore we need only outline the procedure as it applies to our case.

Two masses A and D ( taken here to be equal for ease of discussion) with D located a distance R from A, along the positive z axis of a coordinate system centered at A. The modified casimir force between the pair of particles A and D is given by Eqn71,

Where

is the external (or background) magnetic field stronger than the critical value and B is the dipole magnetic field at the position of particle A due to the motion of particle D and so forth. But since,

, and

, on substitution into Eqn71 we obtain a familiar law,

We have recovered Newton's law of gravitation, practically from first principles!

These equations do not just come out by accident. It had to work, partly for dimensional reasons. In a sense we have reversed these arguments. But the logic is clearly different, and sheds new light on the origin of gravity: it is a casimir force! That is the main statement, which is new and has not been made before. If true, this should have profound consequences.

It is hereby proposed that, gravity is not a separately existing fundamental force, but rather a residuum force derived from zero-point fluctuations of other fields in the manner of the Casimir and van der Waals forces. Particularizing this hypothesis to the zero point fluctuation of the vacuum electromagnetic field, we identify the gravitational force as the casimir force associated with the long-range radiation fields (as opposed to the usual shorter-range induction fields) generated by the particle motion response to the zero point fluctuation of the electromagnetic field.

It is therefore seen that a well-defined, precise quantitative argument can be made that gravity is a form of long-range casimir force associated with particle response to the zero-point fluctuations of the electromagnetic field. As such, the gravitational interaction takes its place alongside the short-range van der Waals forces and the Casimir force as related phenomena which emerge from the underlying dynamics of the interaction of particles with the zero-point auctuations of the vacuum electromagnetic field.

Electromagnetism or the coloumb force emerges in a similar fashion as the gravitational force. The origin of the electric force here assumes a critical magnetic field (Schwinger effect or limit) taken here to represent the external magnetic field,

We have recovered Coulomb’s law of electricity, practically from first principles!

Therefore the gravitational field is the set of all electromagnetic fields generated by all particles as they interact with the zero point fields. Gravity and electricity results from a distortion of the quantum vacuum through its interaction with a mass.