Physicist Michael McCalloche from the University of Plymouth (UK) received funding to test his theory of "quantized inertia", which, according to the scientist, explains the operation of the EmDrive engine and allows one to avoid the introduction of dark matter when describing the motion of galaxies. The scientist announced this on Twitter.
The physicist said that he and three other scientists, in particular Martin Taimar from the Technical University of Dresden (Germany), managed to get funding in the amount of £ 1.3 million ($ 1.8 million) to demonstrate the capabilities of EmDrive. Makkalosh did not disclose the source of funding.
According to the British scientist, he worked on the theory of "quantized inertia" for 11 years, during which he published several articles on research in several peer-reviewed scientific journals. Among them, in particular, the explanation of the observed characteristics of rotation of dozens of galaxies, using exclusively the concept of baryonic matter without involving dark matter.
McCalough's and EmDrive's theory is causing controversy in academia. In particular, astrophysicist Brian Coberlein of the Rochester Institute of Technology (USA) notes that in addition to "quantized inertia" there are many other alternative theories explaining the observed motion of galaxies without the attraction of dark matter, which, meanwhile, contradict other theories that have already been proven. Nathan Eismont, a leading researcher at the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, called EmDrive a "bluff".
McCalough's hypothesis assumes the existence of a nonzero inert mass (that is, caused not by gravity, but by motion) mass for a photon, as well as an effectively changing speed of light. These two assumptions are contrary to modern physics.
The EmDrive is a cone-shaped device made of a magnetron (generating microwaves) and a resonator (storing the energy of their vibrations). This design allows, according to the creators, to convert radiation into thrust.
According to McCulloche, the specially modified photon mass is due to Unruh radiation, which has a shorter wavelength at one end of the EmDrive cone (its base), and a longer one at the opposite (top). This difference is due to the difference in the effective masses of the photons. Therefore, according to McCalough, the law of conservation of momentum leads to the movement of the EmDrive cavity towards its apex.
In November 2016, a group of NASA scientists published an article about EmDrive in the peer-reviewed journal Journal of Propulsion and Power. It says that the EmDrive in a vacuum develops a thrust of 1.2 millinewtons per kilowatt. The reviewers could not find errors in the design of the test bench and the unit, and the authors of the work - the reverse force that responds to the jet thrust developed by EmDrive, which should be present in accordance with the law of conservation of momentum.
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Conservation laws are a consequence of the symmetry properties of space-time. For example, the law of conservation of momentum is a reflection of the homogeneity of space - the equality of its properties regardless of the point chosen in it, and the law of conservation of energy is the homogeneity of time.
The Unruh effect manifests itself in the appearance of thermal radiation in an accelerated moving frame of reference in the absence of it in an inertial one (that is, moving uniformly and rectilinearly, in particular, at rest). The phenomenon, predicted in 1976 by the Canadian physicist William Unruh, is of a quantum nature and is associated with the restructuring of the physical vacuum.