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Propelling force from asymmetrically excited quantum vacuum with conventional mirrors

Yu-Song Cao, YanXia Liu, Ding-Fang Zeng

TL;DR

The paper addresses the challenge of extracting propulsion from vacuum fluctuations by engineering dynamical Casimir emission with a practical two-$δ$-mirror cavity: a left perfectly reflecting mirror and a right mirror of time-varying transparency. Using a 1+1D scattering framework and a perturbative expansion in the right-mirror coupling, it shows that the DCE spectra become asymmetric, yielding a nonzero averaged back-reaction force and a net leftward propulsion with all emitted quanta moving to the right. The work reveals non-monotonic dependence of particle production on drive frequency and identifies a critical frequency $\omega_{c}=\pi/L$; it also analyzes efficiency and practical factors such as left-mirror transmission and field mass, arguing that a massless working medium maximizes propulsion and that the device is within current experimental reach. These findings offer a concrete path toward experimental verification of motion induced by exciting quantum vacuum in Casimir-like systems.

Abstract

Investigations show that a time-varying $δ-δ'$ mirror gives rise to asymmetrical vacuum radiation on its two sides, enabling one to extract propelling forces from the vacuum fluctuation. In this work, we propose a design of Casimir device to gain propulsions out of vacuum with conventional $δ$ mirrors. We call this device a ``vacuum propellion'', which is experimentally feasible. It consists of a cavity made up of a perfectly reflective left mirror and a right mirror with time dependent transparency. All particles generated from this propellion are preferentially right-moving, so the cavity obtains a left-pointing propelling force.

Propelling force from asymmetrically excited quantum vacuum with conventional mirrors

TL;DR

The paper addresses the challenge of extracting propulsion from vacuum fluctuations by engineering dynamical Casimir emission with a practical two--mirror cavity: a left perfectly reflecting mirror and a right mirror of time-varying transparency. Using a 1+1D scattering framework and a perturbative expansion in the right-mirror coupling, it shows that the DCE spectra become asymmetric, yielding a nonzero averaged back-reaction force and a net leftward propulsion with all emitted quanta moving to the right. The work reveals non-monotonic dependence of particle production on drive frequency and identifies a critical frequency ; it also analyzes efficiency and practical factors such as left-mirror transmission and field mass, arguing that a massless working medium maximizes propulsion and that the device is within current experimental reach. These findings offer a concrete path toward experimental verification of motion induced by exciting quantum vacuum in Casimir-like systems.

Abstract

Investigations show that a time-varying mirror gives rise to asymmetrical vacuum radiation on its two sides, enabling one to extract propelling forces from the vacuum fluctuation. In this work, we propose a design of Casimir device to gain propulsions out of vacuum with conventional mirrors. We call this device a ``vacuum propellion'', which is experimentally feasible. It consists of a cavity made up of a perfectly reflective left mirror and a right mirror with time dependent transparency. All particles generated from this propellion are preferentially right-moving, so the cavity obtains a left-pointing propelling force.
Paper Structure (5 sections, 43 equations, 3 figures)

This paper contains 5 sections, 43 equations, 3 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. General framework of the scattering approach
  3. Vacuum radiation
  4. Propelling force
  5. Conclusion and discussion

Figures (3)

  • Figure 1: Schematic of the system. The subscript denotes the ingoing, outgoing and cavity field, respectively. When the coupling strength of the right mirror varies, particles are created from vacuum and ultimately travels rightward, as shown by the wavy lines and the black dots.
  • Figure 2: Total number of particles with respect to driving frequency. The parameters are chosen as $\lambda_{0}=1$ and $L=1$.
  • Figure 3: Total momentum of particles with respect to driving frequency. The parameters are chosen as $\lambda_{0}=1$ and $L=1$.