[NewCandle] Chiral metamaterial for repulsive casimir force.

[Horace Heffner]

On Nov 16, 2009, at 1:15 PM, Keith Nagel wrote:

> For those interested in strange forces emanating from
> chiral materials, check out this paper.
>
> http://arxiv.org/abs/0911.2019
>
> Not that this really explains a macro scale force as
> has been claimed by Kozyrev etc but intriguing example
> of casimir force engineering.
>
> Insane idea: Would a plate consisting of a sandwich
> of left and righthanded versions of such a material
> be pushed along by the resulting force imbalance? (grin).
> Casimir sails...

This work appears to be based on the idea the ZPF is comprised of  
real photons.  It is my understanding it is comprised of virtual  
photons, the mediator of the EM force. In other words the ZPF exerts  
brownian type push-pulls in isotropic directions on charged  
particles, with a cubic frequency distribution. If the ZPF were  
comprised of real photons then a sail clearly *would* be possible  
(though a bit weak) by merely absorbing photons on one side and  
reflecting on the other, in effect a radiometer in a total vacuum -  
one which turns the opposite direction from the normal Crookes  
radiometer.

I don't know if you have seen it or not, but I provided a proof that  
a net ZPF induced force in a vacuum is not feasible, but a Casimir  
motor is feasible, here, p 6 ff:

http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/CasimirGenerator.pdf

Best regards,

Horace Heffner
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/