The Case for Inertia as a Vacuum Effect: A Reply to Woodward and Mahood

2000/02/19 by York Dobyns, Alfonso Rueda, Bernard Haisch · 1 voice
Physics and Astronomy · #gr-qc

paper · pdf

published as Found.Phys. 30 (2000) 59-80 · To appear in Foundations of Physics, Jan. 2000

Abstract

The possibility of an extrinsic origin for inertial reaction forces has recently seen increased attention in the physical literature. Among theories of extrinsic inertia, the two considered by the current work are (1) the hypothesis that inertia is a result of gravitational interactions, and (2) the hypothesis that inertial reaction forces arise from the interaction of material particles with local fluctuations of the quantum vacuum. A recent article supporting the former and criticizing the latter is shown to contain substantial errors.

Discussions

• Sciama's 1953 paper was not a fringe work and is still reasonably well-known - Google Scholar reports ~300 citations in the last ten years – but its importance was not as an experimentally testable th [stackexchange, 4 points]

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