A NASA-funded research effort has been underway at the Lockheed Martin
Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto and at California State University in
Long Beach to develop and test a recently published theory that Newton's
equation of motion can be derived from Maxwell's equations of electrodynamics
as applied to the zero-point field (ZPF) of the quantum vacuum. In this
ZPF-inertia theory, mass is postulated to be not an intrinsic property of
matter but rather a kind of electromagnetic drag force that proves to be
acceleration dependent by virtue of the spectral characteristics of the ZPF.
The theory proposes that interactions between the ZPF and matter take place at
the level of quarks and electrons, hence would account for the mass of a
composite neutral particle such as the neutron. An effort to generalize the
exploratory study of Haisch, Rueda and Puthoff (1994) into a proper
relativistic formulation has been successful. Moreover the principle of
equivalence implies that in this view gravitation would also be electromagnetic
in origin along the lines proposed by Sakharov (1968). With regard to exotic
propulsion we can definitively rule out one speculatively hypothesized
mechanism: matter possessing negative inertial mass, a concept originated by
Bondi (1957) is shown to be logically impossible. On the other hand, the linked
ZPF-inertia and ZPF-gravity concepts open the conceptual possibility of
manipulation of inertia and gravitation, since both are postulated to be
electromagnetic phenomena. It is hoped that this will someday translate into
actual technological potential. A key question is whether the proposed
ZPF-matter interactions generating the phenomenon of mass might involve one or
more resonances. This is presently under investigation.Comment: Revised version of invited presentation at 34th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE
Joint Propulsion Conference, July 13-15, 1998, Cleveland, OH, 10 pages, no
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