Quantum Vacuum and Inertial Reaction Force in Nonrelativistic QED
The possible connection between the electromagnetic zero-point field (ZPF) and the inertia reaction force was first pointed out by Haisch, Rueda, and Puthoff (Phys. Rev. A, 49, 678, 1994), and then by Rueda and Haisch following a totally different and more satisfactory approach (Found. Phys., 28, 1057, 1998; Phys. Letters A, 240, 115, 1998; Annalen der Physik, 10 (5), 393, 2001). In the present paper, the approach taken by Rueda and Haisch will be followed, but the analysis will be done within a formulation that uses nonrelativistic quantum electrodynamics with the creation and annihilation operators rather than the approach of Rueda and Haisch using stochastic electrodynamics. We analyze the interaction between the zero-point field and an object under hyperbolic motion (constant proper acceleration), and find that there arises a reaction force which is proportional in magnitude, and opposite in direction, to the acceleration. This is suggestive of what we know as inertia. We also point out that the equivalence principle -- that inertial mass and gravitational mass have the same values -- follows naturally using this approach. Inertial mass and gravitational mass are not merely equal, they are the identical thing viewed from two complementary perspectives (Annalen der Physik, 14 (8), 479, 2005). In the first case an object accelerating through the electromagnetic zero-point field experiences resistance from the field. In the case of an object held fixed in a gravitational field, the electromagnetic zero-point field propagates on curved geodesics, in effect accelerating with respect to the fixed object, thereby generating weight. Hence, the equivalence principle does not need to be independently postulated.