2009/10/31 by Garret Moddel, Olga Dmitriyeva · 1 citation
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Casimir effect #Classical mechanics #Energy (signal processing) #Extraction (chemistry) #Field (mathematics) #Mathematics #Physics #Point (geometry) #Power (physics) #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Quantum electrodynamics #Quantum mechanics #Statistical physics #Stochastic electrodynamics #Theoretical physics #Thermodynamics #Vacuum energy #Zero (linguistics) #Zero-point energy #cond-mat.stat-mech #physics.atom-ph #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.3390/atoms7020051
published as Atoms, 7 (51), 18 pages, (2019) · 18 pages including 12 figures
openalex publication_date 2019/05/23 · arxiv created 2019/05/27 · arxiv updated 2021/01/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
In research articles and patents several methods have been proposed for the extraction of zero-point energy from the vacuum. None of the proposals have been reliably demonstrated, yet they remain largely unchallenged. In this paper the underlying thermodynamics principles of equilibrium, detailed balance, and conservation laws are presented for zero-point energy extraction. The proposed methods are separated into three classes: nonlinear processing of the zero-point field, mechanical extraction using Casimir cavities, and the pumping of atoms through Casimir cavities. The first two approaches are shown to violate thermodynamics principles, and therefore appear not to be feasible, no matter how innovative their execution. The third approach, based upon stochastic electrodynamics, does not appear to violate these principles, but may face other obstacles. Initial experimental results are tantalizing but, given the lower than expected power output, inconclusive.