Date: Thu, 05 Mar 1998 22:17:05 -0500 To: GURPSnet-Files@io.com From: Tracy Ratcliff Subject: zero-point.txt Zero-Point Energy copyright 1998 Tracy Ratcliff (tratclif@mail.bright.net) Zero-point energy or vacuum energy is a form of Cosmic Energy (V86) that has some basis in current physics. As a consequence of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, every point in space, include a hard vacuum, has a non-zero positive energy. For quantum mechanics, this can be ignored since we're usually interested in relative energies, but General Relativity deals with absolute energies. Space is thus a quantum foam of virtual particles constantly creating and annihilating each other. Zero- point energy also has visible macroscopic effects, the most well known being "Casimir Effect". Two flat parallel plates held very close together attract each other. This can be modeled like this: the small spacing between the plates limits the possible quantum states between them, limiting the possible energy, and the "pressure" of the zero-point energy outside pushes them together. The amount of energy in the vacuum is still a matter of debate. The simplest analysis predicts an infinite amount of energy at every point, but this may be simplistic instead of simple. There are strong intuitive reasons for thinking that zero-point energy can not be extracted, but that has not been firmly shown so far. A small group of enthusiasts looks at the occasional anomalous results of cold fusion or other poorly-understood physical phenomena, and forecasts TL8 as the age of zero-point energy. For GURPS, Zero-Point energy is technobabble to allow Cosmic Energy power plants at lower tech levels. The concept appears at TL7, but if zero-point energy exists, the materials for exploiting it may appear as early TL5. Zero-Point power can appear in an otherwise hard SF setting to allow near-lightspeed relativistic spacecraft, typically in a high-output but heavy power plant. The following are a couple of suggestions. The first is something that a time traveler or Nikola Tesla might invent in a steampunk setting, equivalent in performance to a steam engine, but fuelless. The second is a power plant appropriate for a large relativistic starship in a no-FTL setting. It can power a conversion drive from M A Lloyd's Vehicles Addenda or, by creating matter/antimatter out of the vacuum, provide fuel for an antimatter-pion drive — 1 kW of power will create 1/100,000 of a gram each of antimatter and matter; a 800 kW power plant will drive a one pound thrust antimatter-pion rocket. TL Type Weight if 5kW- 5kW+ Cost 5 Zero-Point Steampunk 105*kW (55*kW)+250 $80 12 Zero-Point Space Drive no (0.01)+50000 $20 Location: These powerplants must go in the body. Weight: Multiply output by the factor on the table above to get weight. Volume: Divide weight by 50 to find volume in cf Cost: This is the cost per pound of the power plant.