Feigel effect: Extraction of momentum from vacuum?

Birkeland, Ole Jakob; Brevik, Iver

doi:10.1103/physreve.76.066605

Cited by 23 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 37 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…[8], Refs. [12] and [10] [11]. When applied to Casimir momentum [12], one finds values inversely proportional to the sample size but still resulting in extremely small values for micro-sized media.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

QED corrections to the electromagnetic Abraham force

2012

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We develop a QED approach to find the contribution of the quantum vacuum to the electromagnetic Abraham force. Semi-classical theories predict diverging contributions from the quantum vacuum.We show that the divergencies disappear by Kramers-Bethe mass-renormalization. The finite remainder is compared to the relativistic corrections to the Abraham force. This work generalizes an earlier paper [1], dedicated to the harmonic oscillator, to the hydrogen atom and corrects two subtle errors.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

QED corrections to the electromagnetic Abraham force

2012

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Feigel's prediction raised some criticism and is not consensual [3], but the possibility of a momentum transfer from the quantum vacuum to magnetoelectric matter is generally supported by several studies, at least for the case of Casimir-type geometries, e.g., Refs. [4][5][6]. One of the unsatisfactory aspects of Feigel's theory is that it is semiclassical, and requires the introduction of a high-frequency cutoff to yield a finite value for the momentum imparted to matter.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exchange of momentum between moving matter induced by the zero-point fluctuations of the electromagnetic field

Silveirinha

Maslovski

2012

Phys. Rev. A

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We propose a quantum theory for the characterization of the momentum of moving media at zero temperature. It is demonstrated that the zero-point quantum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field may cause a net transfer of momentum between polarizable bodies moving at different velocities in Casimir-type geometries. However, the total net momentum induced by the quantum fluctuations, i.e., the total additional momentum imparted to all the matter in the system, vanishes. It is proven that the exchanged momentum can be calculated from the zero-point interaction energy of the system.

show abstract

“…In this sense, the Feigel effect predicts the extraction of momentum from vacuum. This possibility was discussed in [7,8,9,10,11,12]. In particular, in [12] a certain similarity of the Feigel effect with the Casimir effect was noticed, and the computation of the total momentum transfered by the virtual waves was attacked by means of the Green's function method.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forces and momenta caused by electromagnetic waves in magnetoelectric media

Obukhov

Hehl

2008

Physics Letters A

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We analyse the propagation of electromagnetic waves in magnetoelectric media. Recently, Feigel has predicted that such a medium may "extract momentum from vacuum" in the sense that the total momentum of the virtual waves (vacuum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field) is nontrivial. Our aim is to check the feasibility of this effect. The crucial point in our study is an assumption of the finite size of the magnetoelectric sample, which allows us to reduce the calculation of the momenta and forces of the electromagnetic waves acting on the sample to the vacuum region outside of the medium. In this framework, we demonstrate that, in contrast to Feigel, the total force caused by the virtual is zero, with an appropriate count of the modes that should be taken into account in this effect. Furthermore, we find that the two irreducible parts of the magnetoelectric matrix behave differently in the possible Feigel effect. Going beyond the original scheme of the virtual electromagnetic waves, we propose an experimental scheme which is suitable for the measurement of the magnetoelectric susceptibilities of the medium with the help of real electromagnetic waves.

show abstract

Feigel effect: Extraction of momentum from vacuum?

Cited by 23 publications

References 37 publications

QED corrections to the electromagnetic Abraham force

QED corrections to the electromagnetic Abraham force

Exchange of momentum between moving matter induced by the zero-point fluctuations of the electromagnetic field

Forces and momenta caused by electromagnetic waves in magnetoelectric media

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About