Defense Intelligence Reference Document Concepts For Extracting Energy From The Quantum Vacuum

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transparent state rather than in the reflective state. The experiment tested this for
plate separations of 70 - 400 nm.
Iannuzzi et al. 's experimental results showed that the Casimir force did not noticeably
decrease after filling the experimental apparatus with hydrogen. This may have
occurred for two reasons. First, the dielectric properties of the HS Ms used in the
experiment are only known only in a limited range of wavelengths spanning 0.3 - 2.5
~tm, while the experiment measured the transparency of the HSMs over a wavelength
range of 0.5 - 3 ~1m. This narrower wavelength span excludes the rest of the
electromagnetic ZPF modes having wavelengths shorter than 0.5 pm and longer than 3
μm. The ZPF modes lying outside this narrow wavelength span were not affected by the
hydrogenation-induced transparency of the HSMs, hence their contribution to the total
Casimir force acting between the HSMs was not included. One would expect to see a
significant decrease of the Casimir force if the hydrogenation-induced transparency of
the HS Ms had affected all of the ZPF mode wavelengths ranging from IR to UV (ZPF
modes with/,>> 2.5 pm will not give rise to large contributions to the force). Second,
the experiment demonstrated a property of the Lifshitz theory (see Reference 33 for
more detail), that in order to significantly change the Casimir force between surfaces at
separations on the order of 100 nm it is not sufficient just to change their optical (IR
and visible) reflectivity, but it is necessary to modify their dielectric functions over a
much wider spectral range. This comports with the first reason, and indicates that more
theoretical and experimental work is needed to overcome the shortcomings of this
experiment, and allow for the design and testing of new experiments that can achieve
Casimir plate transparency over a wider spectral range.
A notion similar to the tunable Casimir Effect involves changing the dimensions of a
rectangular "Casimir box." Forward (Reference 34) proposed a paradox in which energy
could be extracted by altering the aspect ratio of a conductive rectangular Casimir
cavity over a specific cycle of dimension changes (for example, varying width while
holding length constant). It was subsequently shown by Maclay (Reference 26, 35),
that the Casimir energy inside the box is not isotropic, varying in such a way that more
work is expended in cycling the box dimensions than can be extracted. It appears that
no net gain of energy is theoretically possible in this scheme. Whether such
considerations apply to the tunable Casimir cavity concept remains to be assessed.
EV PHENOMENON
Shoulders (Reference 36) developed an experimental program to explore the physics of
microscopic plasma vortices (aka force-free plasmoids), which are thought to be a form
of ball lightning (Reference 37). This study was motivated by the earlier experimental
work of Wells at the Princeton University Plasma Physics Laboratory, Bostick and Nardi
at the Stevens Inst. of Technology, and their collaborators (Reference 38-45).
Shoulders became interested in the possibility of stable, quantized force-free structures
that could be taken apart by some process to yield a net energy gain for power
generation. The foundation for this speculation was Nardi et al.'s (Reference 45)
observation of strange electron concentrations they called vortex filaments that formed
in an electron beam made by plasma focus or relativistic electron beam machines,
which exhibited electron concentrations that appeared to violate the space charge law.
Furthermore, Nardi et al. observed that the vortex filaments were striking exposed
materials (for example, metals, dielectrics, ceramics, glass), boring smooth channels
straight through them, and sometimes exploding with such a large force that they
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