Heidelberg 1999 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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GR: Gravitation und Relativitätstheorie

GR 10: Inertia, Spinors, and Numerical Relativity

GR 10.1: Hauptvortrag

Donnerstag, 18. März 1999, 10:00–10:45, AM1

Inertia as a quantum vacuum radiation reaction force — •Bernhard Haisch — Solar & Astrophysics Laboratory, Lockheed Martin, Dept. H1-12, Bldg. 252, 3251 Hanover St., Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA

To investigate Hawking’s proposal of quantum radiation from black holes, Unruh/Davies used quantum electrodyn. (QED) in the mid-1970’s to demonstrate that a physical system undergoing uniform acceleration, a, would behave as though immersed in a Planckian spectrum at temperature T=ℏ a/2π c k. In 1980 Boyer derived a similar result using stochastic electrodyn. (SED), but this included an unwanted add. term in the zero-point field (ZPF) spectrum. The QED and SED results were reconciled in 1984 when Boyer identified an additional acceleration-dependent relativistic radiation reaction term that cancelled the unwanted ZPF spectral term with regard to the electric part of the ZPF-accelerating dipole oscillator interaction. In 1994 we investigated (PR 49, 678) the magnetic ZPF-accelerating dipole oscillator interaction and discovered that the additional radiation reaction term yielded a Lorentz force on the oscillator that proved to be proportional to acceleration. This was interpreted as an electromagn. basis for inertia, i.e. the origin of F=ma. We have now derived (PL A240, 115, 1998) a relativ. generalization that yields the proper covariant eq. of motion, F=d P/dτ, from the electrodyn. of the quantum vacuum by examining the Poynting vector of the ZPF in accelerating frames. An inertia-like reaction force would result provided quarks and electrons scatter such zero-point radiation. If correct, this interpr. of inertia would substitute for Mach’s principle and imply that no further mass-giving Higgs field may be required. The principle of equiv. would then suggest that grav. mass should also have a relation to the quantum vacuum, as conjectured 30 years ago by Sakharov.