On the exhaust of electromagnetic drive
- COMSOL, FI-00560 Helsinki (Finland)
- Department of Physics, FI-00014 University of Helsinki, Helsinki (Finland)
- Department of Chemistry, FI-40014 University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä (Finland)
Recent reports about propulsion without reaction mass have been met on one hand with enthusiasm and on the other hand with some doubts. Namely, closed metal cavities, when fueled with microwaves, have delivered thrust that could eventually maintain satellites on orbits using solar power. However, the measured thrust appears to be without any apparent exhaust. Thus the Law of Action-Reaction seems to have been violated. We consider the possibility that the exhaust is in a form that has so far escaped both experimental detection and theoretical attention. In the thruster’s cavity microwaves interfere with each other and invariably some photons will also end up co-propagating with opposite phases. At the destructive interference electromagnetic fields cancel. However, the photons themselves do not vanish for nothing but continue in propagation. These photon pairs without net electromagnetic field do not reflect back from the metal walls but escape from the resonator. By this action momentum is lost from the cavity which, according to the conservation of momentum, gives rise to an equal and opposite reaction. We examine theoretical corollaries and practical concerns that follow from the paired-photon conclusion.
- OSTI ID:
- 22611545
- Journal Information:
- AIP Advances, Vol. 6, Issue 6; Other Information: (c) 2016 Author(s); Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2158-3226
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
A high sensitivity momentum flux measuring instrument for plasma thruster exhausts and diffusive plasmas
Ideal performance of off-axis paraboloid concentrators for solar-thermal propulsion