AAWSAP DIRD, Quantum Tomography of Negative Energy States in the Vacuum, January 2011

Text

This text came with the file. It may have mistakes. When the text and the image disagree, the image is right.

UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL 031! er•tv
dB
I
4 I\ \
2
,,._
-2
I
I
8
10
12
..... ..... ..... ..... -J
-4
Figure 20. Predicted Suppression of Vacuum Fluctuations in dB. (courtesy
of P. Marecki) Vacuum fluctuations in the ground state (for field operators
restricted to the frequency ro) relative to vacuum fluctuations (in the absence of
the plates) for a BHD at x = 0.25 ~tm (solid line) and x = 0.5 pm (dashed line)
within the cavity. The frequency range is ro e [0, 4rrc/a].
The predicted spectral density pattern shown in Figure 19 is static, i.e., it is
independent of the LO phase and in some regions corresponds to the suppression of
vacuum fluctuations by at least 3 dB. Such a behavior is allegedly forbidden by a
theorem known as the Quantum Inequalities for quantum fields without external
conditions (i.e., "undeformed," or "undisturbed," vacuum states). The theorem states
that regions with sub-vacuum fluctuations must be followed by regions with greatly
increased vacuum fluctuations no matter what the state of the quantum field is. This
has only been verified for single-mode squeezed light, see, e.g., Figures 1 and 14. A
major consequence of this theorem is that sub-vacuum fluctuations, and their
corresponding sub-vacuum (negative) energy density, cannot persist for long times.
What is surprising here is that Marecki (private communication, Leipzig University,
Germany, 2010) claims that the Quantum Inequalities should also apply to the case of
static sub-vacuum fluctuations, and their corresponding static sub-vacuum (negative)
energy density, inside Casimir cavities. The efficacy of the Quantum Inequalities
theorem in its application to curved spacetime physics, and more specifically faster­
than-light spacetime geometries, has been argued in the literature in which serious
theoretical shortcomings of the theorem have been identified by several investigators
(see Reference [1] for the details). Therefore Marecki's proposed Casimir cavity BHD
experiment provides a possible test of yet unexplored generic quantum field theoretic
effects in Casimir geometries, complementary to measurements of Casimir forces. We
hope that experimental attempts to verify his predictions will follow.
UNCLASSIFIED/}FOR OFFIGl.t.k W&li 8HLY
42