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Defense
Intelligence
Reference
Document
, i (i‘(iéisisr Acquisition Threat Support
23 March 2010
ICOD: 1 December 2010
DIA-08-1003-013
The Role of Superconductors
in Gravity Research
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The Role of Superconductors in Gravity Research
Prepared by:
(b)(3):10 USC 424
Defense Intelligence Agency
Author:
(b)(6)
Administrative Note
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This product is one in a series of advanced technology reports produced in FY 2009
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|Advanced Aerospace
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Contents
INtrOduction ...ccsccsecercesssesecsccnsnencnsavanenassuantnasonaceuenaucnaucnanccaccuancsenenavensuanacauensacnauanauas iti
Gravity Wave .....sccccccurccrsassonrererecerecsourenustonreerseuresusursperevacesesuneverazeruresusesusecesuressces 1
GravitoelectromaQGnetism ......ccceveccrecsnecccensnenenenenenaneranenenancseneneneuaneunareceuencnanesenenenes 1
Historical Timeline ..ccsccersccscserecerscnrscssccerevssevecesusavavesenessvursovsussvevauqecvevesesevececasasussves 3
CONCIUSION 0... ceeceeeceeenseeneeueceeneuseueeuenaaeneeeenecnsaeneeaeueseenenuanensuecneuseuecceaeventauseauenuenened 11
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The Role of Superconductors in Gravity Research
Introduction
This paper is a historical survey of the role superconductors have played in the
recent search for laboratory-scale manipulation of gravity. The invention of
superconductors and, in particular, the recent development of high-
temperature ceramic superconductors have provided the impetus for pursuing
a connection between gravity, electromagnetism, and, in particular,
magnetism and matter in the solid state. The discovery of yttrium-barium-
copper oxide (YBCO) YBa2Cu307 ceramics able to superconduct at liquid
nitrogen temperatures allowed many laboratories around the world to
fabricate these superconductors in various experimentally useful sizes. True
Meissner repulsion was obtained by cooling them using relatively cheap liquid
nitrogen rather than liquid helium. For the theoretician, the possibility of
considering the superconductor being a macroscopic quantum object as a
reality rather than a fantasy suggested several avenues for developing
theories connecting gravity and gravity-like forces to engineerable matter. For
the experimentalist, extrapolations from these theories suggested there might
actually be gravitational disturbances in the laboratory that would be
amenable to measurement, assuming all necessary precautions were taken to
exclude artifact.
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Gravity Waves
A distinction should be made between gravitational waves, the gravitational “force,”
and anomalous forces. Currently, work on gravitational waves is divided into two more
or less distinct realms: low frequency (less than a few hundred Hz) and high frequency
(greater than ~ several tens of kHz). The existence of gravitational waves of any
frequency is a natural outcome of Einstein’s theory of general relativity (GR). The
search for low-frequency gravitational waves currently utilizes large, heavy, and long
metal bars as detectors together with interferometers, strain gauges, and
accelerometers in an attempt to detect quadrupolar gravitational waves from
cosmological sources, such as binary stars. The general idea is that if a large mass of
precisely known dimensions is effectively isolated from the surrounding environment
(such as Earth) by means of special vibration and other isolators, the masses will
interact with the small-amplitude gravity waves emitted by large masses in the cosmos
and their lengths will change, but by extremely small amounts. LIGO, LISA, VIRGO,
DECIGO (Japan), and CEGO (China) are some of the acronyms given to these
experiments. They are primarily attempts to verify the existence of these waves to
further solidify the understanding that GR gives us about the nature of space and
matter. Several researchers consider that high-frequency gravitational waves (HFGW)
will be produced in the laboratory under certain conditions in the near future (Reference
1). These researchers have a considerably more ambitious view of the future than the
low-frequency gravitational wave researchers, including the use of HFGW for
communications, telescopy, microscopy, and possibly propulsion. Some consider that
the production and detection of these waves will be mediated, or at least assisted, by
superconductors (References 2, 3). Current research on the link between HFGW and the
manipulation of gravity for propulsion is at present only theoretical. If gravitational
waves can interact with and be converted into forces in laboratory-scale matter, it is
hoped that those forces would be manifest not as gravitational forces per se, as these
gravitational forces would be exceedingly small and difficult to unequivocally detect in
the laboratory, but rather as electromagnetic or ponderable nongravitational forces,
thus making them more amenable to detection by electromagnetic means.
Gravitoelectromagnetism
The gravitational “force” arises from the tendency of one body to accelerate toward
another. (Force is in quotation marks here merely for simplicity and ease of use when
comparing gravity with other forces, as many other gravity-like forces can be easily
confused in the laboratory with actual gravitational attraction.) The physical explanation
for gravitational attraction has been elusive at best. Several notable attempts at novel
explanations have recently been published. Puthoff (Reference 4) developed an idea
originally put forward by Sakharov (Reference 5) that posits gravity as a Casimir-like
attraction arising within the universal sea of fluctuating electromagnetic interactions,
sometimes called zero-point fluctuations. Alzofon (Reference 6) presented an
engineering approach to interacting with gravity by means of altering nuclear entropy
using a technique associated with electron paramagnetic resonance called dynamic
nuclear orientation—that is, enhanced polarization of the magnetic moments of
nucleons by interaction with pulsed polarized electron spins. Hughes (Reference 7)
analyzed the Kopernicky Conjecture, which holds that gravity is nothing other than the
slight difference between forces of coulomb attraction and repulsion. However, none of
these researchers appealed to the special form of matter constituting superconductors.
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The “attraction” of modifying gravity—whether your own, your spacecraft’s, or that of a
nearby large mass—for propulsive purposes lies in two general categories of effect:
e The modifying, neutralizing, or negating of the gravitational attraction of a nearby
body, typically Earth.
« The provision of propulsive force or impulse to a spacecraft based on manipulation
of the same underlying physical phenomenon that forms the basis of gravity.
The theoretical and experimental attempts outlined in this paper deal with both these
possibilities.
In experiments designed to produce a gravity-like force or to interact directly with a
local gravity field, the researcher has to be looking for extremely small deviations from
a null result. Observations to date demonstrate that interactions between gravity and
electromagnetic fields, given the field densities and strengths available to even the
most well-equipped laboratory, are many orders of magnitude smaller than those
required to begin to see such forces. Braginski et al. (Reference 8) showed that
ordinary matter cannot be used to generate measurable gravitational fields in the
laboratory. The standard edict against such things as gravity shields can be summed up
by noting the absence of negative gravitational mass, at least in this sector of the
universe, resulting in the relative “gravitational permittivity/permeability” being unity in
normal matter. Therefore, demonstrating that a new force, whether gravitational or
not, has been discovered in the laboratory will require an intense effort to provide
proof. This implies being able to distinguish between true gravity-like forces and gravity
interactions and a host of prosaic effects masquerading as these forces. A list of
potential artifacts attendant on such experiments can be found in Reference 9.
General relativity introduces a metric tensor theory of gravity, and while it does not
explain the fundamental physical basis of the gravitational attraction between two
bodies, it does allow the prediction of a large range of interactions between bodies.
Similarly, Maxwell’s vector equations do not explain the fundamental basis for
electromagnetic interactions but do allow us to predict the outcomes of such
interactions. It is possible to reformulate the tensor format of GR into a simple vector
format that is valid only for a subset of GR conditions, namely in the weak field
approximation and for nonrelativistic velocities. Using perturbation theory, for example,
to compute the equations of motion in the simplified GR equations results in terms that
have direct analogs in Maxwell equations where electrical current flow is replaced by
mass flow, for example. Forward (Reference 10, 11) was among the first to investigate
this analog. One term is analogous to the Biot-Savart-like magnetic field and is
generally referred to as the “gravitomagnetic field” (and also sometimes as
“gravitational frame dragging” or the “Lense-Thirring Effect”) and has the dimensions of
s1, Another term is analogous to the electrostatic coulomb field and is referred to as
the “gravitoelectric field.” Essentially, the gravitomagnetic field produces a force
between currents of flowing matter, while the gravitoelectric field produces a force
between masses themselves (the Newtonian gravitational field). Sometimes the term
“gravitoelectromagnetic field” is used to refer to both the gravitoelectric and
gravitomagnetic fields.
Gravity is thus composed of a (Newtonian) velocity-independent field and a
(gravitomagnetic) velocity-dependent field analogous to the electric and magnetic fields
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in electromagnetic theory. The simplified GR/Maxwell equations show that there is also
a Faraday-like law of induction that can generate Newtonian gravitational fields from
time-varying gravitomagnetic fields.
Modern attempts to confirm the existence of the gravitomagnetic field include highly
accurate laser ranging of the Earth-Moon distance (Reference 12), as well as the launch
of the Gravity Probe B satellite (Reference 13).
Historical Timeline
In order to aid future researchers, it is instructive to follow the general historical
development of the modern search for a link between electromagnetism, matter, and
gravity. This outline will include both theoretical and experimental aspects, expanding
and emphasizing experimental issues where appropriate. Because of space limitations,
not all of the many contributions to the field can be highlighted. The reader is
encouraged to consult the source references cited in this paper to obtain a fuller
appreciation of the amount of effort that has been expended in this area of physics.
Podkletnov and Nieminen (Reference 15) published what is considered the first possible
evidence for an experimental link between high-temperature liquid nitrogen (LN2)
superconductor effects and gravity, allegedly in the form of a gravity shield. Many
scientists since then have cast considerable doubt on their findings. Notwithstanding
these severe criticisms, since the publication of this paper, many other researchers
have considered that the experimental search for gravity-related forces could be taken
out of the realm of pure speculation and onto the laboratory bench. Podkletnov’s
apparent experimental success has in turn prompted some theoreticians to consider
fresh approaches to investigating superconductors as a special form of condensed
matter capable of modifying and/or producing such forces.
It would be a breakthrough of the first order to discover a repeatable, laboratory-scale,
heretofore hidden connection between gravity, special forms of matter that can be
created in the laboratory, and electromagnetism that would possibly unlock the door to
new transportation systems, new energy sources, and a host of other earthly benefits,
not to mention professional accolades and untold wealth for the technology developers.
However, the rush to be the first to successfully find a repeatable and verifiable link
between superconductors and gravity has produced many casualties. Theoreticians
have made assumptions to force their theories to explain the putative experimental
results. Most experiments have been literally thrown together with little thought paid to
the myriad traps and pitfalls that litter the minefield of experimental physics in this
uncharted territory. This is primarily due to the expectation that the sought-after forces
will be extremely tiny and hard to distinguish frorn prosaic influences.
The most prominent, albeit controversial theoretical work on creating laboratory-
detectable gravitomagnetic fields via high-temperature superconductors was initiated
by Li and Torr (Reference 16-18). Their work expanded on earlier work by DeWitt
(Reference 19) and Ross (Reference 20), who considered modifications to the London
equations, which relate supercurrent (that is, Cooper pair) flow to electric and magnetic
fields in and around a superconductor, to include gravitomagnetic fields. Dewitt showed
that a time-varying gravitomagnetic field must arise owing to the presence of magnetic
flux quantization in superconductors. Dewitt’s work was expanded on by Ross, who
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produced a modified set of London equations. These papers laid the theoretical
foundations for the later work of Li, Torr, and Tajmar, for example.
In the late 1980s while at the University of Alabama, Douglas Torr was examining
neglected areas of physics, including aether theories and experiments, as well as
gravitational wave antennas, the subject of a paper awarded the Gravity Research
Foundation’s “First Award” in 1989. In 1991, Torr and Ning Li published a paper on the
effects of a gravitomagnetic field on superconducting matter (Reference 16). Ordinarily,
all magnetic fields are excluded from the interior of a superconductor because of
Meissner expulsion. However, by solving the coupled Maxwell, GR, and London
equations for the internal magnetic and gravitomagnetic fields of superconductors
exposed to external gravitomagnetic and magnetic fields, they predicted a small
residual internal magnetic field. This in turn produces an internal gravitomagnetic field.
The fields are related to one another by the Cooper pair mass-to-charge ratio. The
gravitomagnetic field penetration depth is larger than the normal magnetic field depth.
A year later the same authors presented papers at a meeting of the American Physical
Society (Reference 17), Buoyed by the apparent success of their previous analyses,
part of the title of one presentation was “A Theoretical Basis for a Principle of
Electrically Induced Gravitation.” In this paper, they used coupled Ginzburg-Landau
equations to calculate the relative strengths of the electric and gravitational fields in
superconductors in the presence of magnetic and gravitomagnetic fields. They
concluded that under certain circumstances, a secondary gravitational field could be
induced inside a superconductor and “provide a basis for the electrical generation of
gravitational fields in the laboratory.”
Then came the bombshell. A Russian materials scientist on staff at the Institute of
Materials Science at the Tampere University of Technology in Finland published a paper
in 1992 on an apparent gravity shielding experiment using a spinning superconductor
disk (Reference 15). In the mid-1980s, the lead author, Evgueny E. Podkletnov, had
published several papers on ceramics while at the Institute for High Temperatures in
Moscow. He later moved to Finland, where he completed his doctorate under then-
Director of the Institute of Materials Science Pentti Kettunen. Podkletnov’s thesis was
on preparation of pure YBCO whiskers by magnetron sputtering, and he was producing
this material for powder-in-tube high-temperature superconducting wire for a local
business concern. According to Kettunen (Reference 21), the spinning disk experiment -
was not actually performed at the institute but rather was conducted by Podkletnov and
others “after hours.” Kettunen also confided that although he was aware of the
existence of the gravity shielding experiment through “so many others” telling him
about it, he never witnessed it himself. He did confirm the story Podkletnov later told
about discovering the shielding effect by watching the smoke from a coworker’s pipe
float up exactly in the “shadow” of the spinning disk. The disk was apparently made in
Russia for sputtering purposes and brought to Finland.
The coauthor of the gravity shielding experiment, Risto Nieminen (this Risto Nieminen
is emphatically not the more famous professor of computational physics currently at
Helsinki University of Technology}, was a technician working at the Institute of
Materials Science during Podkletnov’s time there. He was not involved in Podkletnov’s
experiments but noted (Reference 22) that they were likely conducted at either the
Tampere Institute of Technology’s Department of Electrical Engineering or the Institute
of Physics. To this day, he is still not sure why he was asked to coauthor the paper,
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except possibly for his proofreading skills. Strangely, the only persons who contacted
Podkletnov in the mid-1990s about the paper were the Italian theoretical physicist G.
Modanese and this author. Podkletnov claimed he had never heard of the work of Li and
Torr prior to publishing the paper.
According to the 1992 paper, the essence of his experiment was the high-speed
rotation of a relatively large (14.5-cm diameter x 6-mm thick) YBCO sintered ceramic
superconducting disk in the vapors of liquid helium (LHe). The disk was levitated by
Meissner repulsion over a large support electromagnet immersed in LHe that was
powered by a variable-frequency supply from 50 Hz to 10° Hz. At the diametrical
periphery of the disk were positioned two additional but smaller electromagnets also
powered by variable frequency supplies. These two “rotational” electromagnets were
used to spin the disk in some unspecified manner. A small nonconducting, nonmagnetic
test mass was suspended from an analytical balance about 15 mm from the top of the
disk. Subsequent information from Podkletnov indicated that to obtain the maximum
stable test sample weight loss of about 0.3 percent, the optimum conditions required
operation of these two electromagnets at frequencies of 10° Hz and disk rotational
speeds of several thousand rpm.
Apart from the difficulty believing, on purely theoretical grounds, that such an
enormous weight loss was possible, there was considerable doubt about the validity of
the observations based on experimental issues. Among many other concerns, a few
comments regarding the cryostat are in order. The only information on the physical
configuration of the experiment is given in the sketch provided in Reference 15.
Referring to that figure, it is difficult to believe the only thing separating the vapors of
LHe in the cryostat from the laboratory atmosphere was a thin plastic film. Ordinarily,
so much water vapor and other gases would have condensed on the outer surface of
the film as to render it completely opaque, thus making the observation of the disk
extremely unlikely. If the cryostat was actually designed roughly per the sketch in the
article, the LHe would be boiling so vigorously that it would rupture any film unless
adequate He gas escape was provided. As pointed out by dePodesta (Reference 23),
thermal currents and buoyancy changes above such a cryostat would be so severe as to
render the determination of the weight of a test mass suspended only 1.5 cm above the
disk (and therefore only a few mm above a separating film covered with ice) virtually
impossible. This was an entirely unsatisfactory cryogenic design for the purpose.
Important issues such as how the disk was balanced, how it was prevented from
rupturing at high speeds, how much power was used to operate the coils, and what
means were employed to prevent the balance from being affected by the magnetic
fields from the coils were not addressed in the article. Nevertheless, the article caused
experimentalists around the world to try to duplicate the essence of the experiment,
generally in an overly simplified manner. All started out using the less costly LN2
approach with either fixed or rotating permanent magnets and small (~ 2- to 3-cm
diameter) disks purchased commercially. Several researchers, including Gonnelli at
Turin Politecnico (Reference 24), Woods at the University of Sheffield (Reference 25),
and this author witnessed very slight apparent weight changes while the disk was
passing through its critical temperature, Tc. However, in most cases, the effect was so
close to the noise that further experimentation was not considered. At a private
unpublished meeting (see below) hosted by Professor R. Gonnelli at the Turin
Politecnico in April 1999, however, Podkletnov made it clear that unless the exact disk
formulation was followed, high-frequency magnetic fields were employed (not
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permanent magnets), and a larger disk was spun at lower temperatures, the shielding
effect would be extremely small.
The experiment has remained controversial since its publication. Very few scientists put
any stock into it at all. Most damning to Podkletnov’s case was the complete lack of any
supporting evidence that the experiment had ever actually taken place.
As the Podkletnov article began to slowly circulate, Li and Torr published another article
(Reference 18) expanding on their earlier investigations in an attempt to outline the
physical mechanism underlying the production of a gravitomagnetic field inside a
superconductor. Basic to their consideration was an assumption of near-zero magnetic
permeability in the superconductor and the requirement of coherent alignment of lattice
ion spins in conjunction with a time-varying applied magnetic vector potential field.
With this understanding, they determined values for laboratory-scale induced internal
gravitomagnetic fields and external gravitoelectric fields and how these fields could be
maximized. However, in 1994 Kowitt (Reference 26) claimed that their 1992 and 1993
results were not credible owing to their assumption of near-zero permeability inside a
superconductor. However, Li and Torr rather effectively countered shortly thereafter,
and Woods (Reference 3) also called that criticism into question. Later, however, Harris
(Reference 27) argued in a more effective critique that Li and Torr’s previous results
were erroneous because they assumed arbitrary (and extremely small) distances from
the lattice ion to the observer, thus producing unreasonably large effects. In fact, Harris
pointed out that the correct estimation of the induced gravitoelectric field outside a
superconductor is some 20 orders of magnitude smaller! No evident rebuttal has been
forthcoming from Li or Torr.
At about this time, Torr and Li parted company, although both continued to work in the
area. In 1995, Li was sufficiently convinced that she now had the answer to producing
an artificial gravity field that could be measured outside a superconductor that she
approached R. Koczor at NASA to fund further development of her version of the
theory. By this time the Podkletnov paper had been “discovered,” and a few forward-
thinking NASA scientists determined that perhaps it was time to initiate some research
in the area. After all, now there was a peer-reviewed theoretical basis for a peer-
reviewed experiment. Also at this time, this author and colleagues began preliminary
experiments in Toronto after contacting Podkletnov. Our approach was to attempt to
reproduce the 1992 Physica C spinning disk experiment with additional data from
Podkletnov but using a better cryogenic design with the possibility of mechanically
spinning the disk. This author and colleagues started manufacturing our own large
YBCO disks in house.
The following year, while still at the Tampere University of Technology’s Institute for
Materials Science, Podkletnov and Vuorinen attempted to publish updated spinning disk
experiments in the British Journal of Physics D Applied Phys Vol. 29 (1996), but the
paper was withdrawn in a cloud of controversy. It was later published on the Internet
(Reference 28) under the authorship of Podkletnov and Levit and then Podkletnov
alone. Vuorinen and Levit had coauthored papers on ceramic processing with
Podkletnov previously. This new experiment involved a large AC levitated 27-cm-
diameter bi-layer sintered YBCO disk spun to 5,000 rpm using two-phase high-
frequency radiofrequency (RF) “rotation” fields and allegedly showed gravitational
shielding in the few percent range. The cryostat design was somewhat better in that
there was considerably more shielding of the test mass from buoyancy and thermal
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current effects. There was no independent confirmation that this experiment actually
took place. Vuorinen and Levit had disappeared from the scene when this author asked
Podkletnov whether they were available to discuss the experiment. Nevertheless, this
author arranged for Podkletnov to visit the Toronto laboratory for preliminary
consultation on the experimental design to replicate his 1992 Physica C results.
Meanwhile, a 1997 University of South Carolina press announcement declared that
investors were being sought for a “Gravity Generator” technology based on
confirmatory experiments apparently underway at the university involving nonrotating
high-temperature superconductors and RF coils. This machine would “replace the
wheels of a car...lift and propel aircraft, drive generators more efficiently and produce
gravity-free environments on Earth.” Evidently, the work of Douglas Torr, who had
recently taken up a post there, was the basis for the announcement. Unfortunately, the
excitement was short-lived, as a subsequent announcement was issued stating that the
previous announcement was “premature.”
In preliminary experiments at NASA, Koczor, Li, et al. failed to see expected shielding
effect in a Podkletnov-like experiment (Reference 29). However, they were using a
small, commercially available disk levitated above permanent magnets at LN2
temperatures. Undeterred, they pressed on, buoyed by the Internet publication of
Podkletnov’s previously rejected paper and discussions with Podkletnov himself. The
following year, Noever and Koczor (Reference 30) published the results of their
investigations into nonrotating superconductor disks irradiated by radiofrequencies from
1 to 15 MHz and detected a very weak gravity increase. This finding was later shown by
the same authors to be the likely result of an instrumentation artifact (Reference 31).
In 1999, this author was asked to present the state of the Toronto experimental
replication to the assembled physicists and engineers at the April 1999 Turin Politecnico
meeting. Gonnelli and others presented their initial findings of a tiny possible weight
change in test samples suspended above a disk as it passed through Tc. Also
presenting was G. Modanese, who had been formulating his own theoretical
explanations for the Podkletnov results. Podkletnov described how the “gravity
shielding” effect was discovered. Apparently his group had made large sputtering target
disks of YBCO for the aforementioned single-crystal processing, and to ensure the
correct uniformity and porosity, the disk was set into rotation (presumably
mechanically) while being levitated over a “supporting solenoid.” This allowed quick and
complete scanning of the target’s surface by means of a small, movable test magnet
suspended above the rotating disk and connected to an analytical chemical balance.
When the smoke from a technician’s pipe inexplicably appeared to rise above the
apparatus, they considered the possibility of gravitational shielding and substituted a
nonmagnetic, nonconducting test mass for the small suspended magnet. Note that the
normal rotational speeds for magnetron sputtering are in the tens, not thousands, of
rpm.
Podkletnov went on to describe his first experiments with the so-called high-voltage
“gravity beam” apparatus. An array of single-crystal whiskers of YBCO was grown on a
small (few cm? in area) substrate using a technique later commercialized by materials
scientists (Professors Kettunen and Tiainen) at the Tampere University of Technology.
This plate was placed upright in a small LN2 dewar and electrically attached to a small
(~200-kilovolt) van de Graaff machine. A grounded metal annular disk was placed a
few centimeters laterally away. The whole assembly was placed in a large bell jar that
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was evacuated and back-filled with argon to prevent YBCO degradation by water vapor.
When the static machine was operated, a light blue planar “discharge” was seen to pass
from the superconductor array to the annulus. At this instant, a pencil standing upright
on a table in an adjoining room and separated from the experiment by a thick concrete
wall fell over.
Around this time, Koczor had raised some NASA funding to commission the commercial
fabrication of a 27-cm bi-layer disk conforming to Podkletnov and Levit’s 1997
specifications. Podkletnov visited the Toronto laboratory for a second time to assess the
experimental progress, in particular the fabrication of the special bi-layer sintered
ceramic YBCO disks. Upon persistent questioning about the methods he used to power
the various coils (without sustaining high-voltage arcs), keep them in phase at high
frequencies, and maintain stability during rotation, it was learned that Podkletnov was
not involved in the electrical design but only in the ceramic side of the experiment.
Nevertheless, he claimed that with our apparatus and “nome-made” disks, one should
see the shielding effect, but at a somewhat smaller magnitude than his original results
owing to our expected lower rotational speeds.
For several years prior to 1999, Professor Harald Reiss had been working on tests of
gravity’s influence on high-temperature superconductors and vice versa as a researcher
at Asea Brown Boveri and later the University of Wuerzburg in Germany, where he
taught courses in superconductivity. In that year he published (Reference 32) the
results of precise measurements of the weights of superconducting and non-
superconducting samples cooled below Tc and found anomalies not easily explained
away. He weighed small, disk-shaped samples held in a specially made capsule while
dipping it into LN2 and found a slight (~0.5 percent) weight increase of a high-
temperature superconductor for which he was not able to offer a prosaic explanation.
We supplied some YBCO disks for his experiments. His analysis of possible artifacts is
thorough and very useful to other researchers investigating this area. In 2003, he
published (Reference 33) an update of his ongoing LN2 experiments with increased
precision and artifact reduction. He was still observing weight changes during Tc
transition to a repeatable degree not achieved elsewhere.
1999 saw the wind-up of the NASA small-diameter nonrotating disk experiments with
no unequivocal results. As the budget for such experimentation had been exhausted by
the costly fabrication of the 27-cm bi-layer disk, Koczor tried to interest others,
including our laboratory, to take on the task of levitating and RF-spinning this monster
disk at LHe temperatures; we respectfully declined. Around 2002, Koczor gave up
trying, as the experiment was deemed too difficult without considerable effort, and no
spare disks were available in case the only YBCO disk that was made broke!
Two years later, Podkletnov and his collaborator on theory, Modanese, published a
paper on the web concerning an enhanced version of the gravity beam, or “Impulse
Gravity” experiment (Reference 34). This was the first general publication of the high-
voltage impulse force experiment. Enough technical description was available to allow
an assessment of the validity of experimental setup. Unfortunately, many unresolved
technical questions cast considerable doubt on whether the experiment actually had
been undertaken. Neither Podkletnov nor Modanese provided by a shred of
confirmatory evidence. However, the paper presented a general summary of the
theoretical work by Madanese and included an extensive bibliography.
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Our own version of the Podkletnov spinning disk experiment was completed in late
2001 and published in 2003 (Reference 35) showing a null result. It represented—and
still represents—the closest published replication of the original Podkletnov experiment.
It contains a discussion of the experimental difficulties arising from the nature of the
experiment itself and highlights the inability of the experimentalist (Podkletnov) to
supply critical data on his alleged prior experiments. Such a lack would have seriously
hampered our replication had not Podkletnov been actively involved in the experimental
setup, at least from the standpoint of the construction of the ceramic disk. In fact, we
sent to Podkletnov in Finland one of our bi-layered disks that he pronounced acceptable
for experimentation. Unfortunately, neither Podkletnov’s 1992 publication nor
subsequent discussions with Podkletnov allowed a complete understanding of how the
original experiment was carried out.
In 2001, Tajmar and De Matos began publishing a set of theoretical and experimental
papers (Reference 36) that essentially carried on and incorporated Li and Torr’s earlier
work while also providing additional insights. Martin Tajmar was a newly minted post-
doc working at the European Space Research & Technology Centre, Holland. The paper
condensed the previous work, including that of Li and Torr, to show that every
electromagnetic field is coupled to a gravitoelectric and gravitomagnetic field and that
the coupling “is generally valid and does not require special properties like
superconductivity.” The authors acknowledged the criticisms of Li and Torr by Kowitt
and Harris and noted that the simple coupling coefficient they derive is exceedingly
small. However, it can be increased by using massive ion currents (for example,
moving/rotating mass or dense plasmas) and by aligning electron and nuclear spins. In
a roughly concurrent publication (Reference 37), De Matos and Tajmar, now at the
Austrian Research Centres, extended their previous ideas and used a Barnett Effect
analog to show that “any substance set into rotation becomes the seat of a uniform
intrinsic gravitomagnetic field.”
Some experimentalists were still not willing to give up on superconductor-mediated
gravity effects, in spite of the failure of our replication and the null results of NASA and
others. In 2002, a few researchers at Boeing Phantom Works in California attempted to
interest their management in replicating the Podkletnov high-voltage impulse gravity
beam experiment but were turned down in part because of the publicity resulting from
a leaked copy of the internal proposal getting to the media. That same year, Chiao in
California proposed (Reference 38) using superconductors as gravitational wave
transducers into RF radiation and vice versa and attempted an experiment that
apparently failed. Harris (Reference 39) later rebutted Chiao by stating that neither
gravitoelectric nor gravitomagnetic fields accompany gravitational waves.
In his 1950 book on superfluids, London (Reference 40) derived an expression for the
magnetic field produced by a rotating superconductor or superfluid that was
proportional to the Cooper pair mass-to-charge ratio and the angular velacity. This is
also called the London moment, and its value had been measured in the laboratory by
Tate et al. (Reference 41). A general expression of the London moment can be used to
determine the Cooper pair mass. In a 2003 paper, Tajmar et al. (Reference 42) noted
that the Tate experiments showed that the Cooper pair mass, which had been predicted
to be slightly smaller than twice that of the electron, was actually slightly larger.
Intrigued that there had been no published solution to this disagreement, Tajmar asked
if a gravitational effect might be at work. By applying his previous work to this “Cooper
Pair Mass Anomaly,” he found that a relatively huge internal gravitomagnetic field
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would be required to explain the mass anomaly, a field that may be investigated in the
laboratory. In fact, he proposed an experiment “measuring the torque on a spinning
gyroscope produced by the gravitomagnetic field possibly generated by rotating
superconductors.” His subsequent publications showed that he was convinced that the
“anomalous gravitomagnetic London moment” can actually be detected in the lab and
noted that an experiment was already underway under his direction.
In an attempt to bring some order to the discussion about correct laboratory practices
in experiments designed to detect gravity-like forces, Reiss and Hathaway (Reference
43) collaborated on a paper published in 2005. They tried to remind experimentalists
about the perils and pitfalls in the kind of research documented in the present paper.
This author meanwhile presented an extensive list of experimental issues that is
available and is still being added to on the Internet (Reference 9). These issues range
from spurious mechanical effects to electromagnetic and electrostatic effects together
with a discussion of signal analysis and instrumentation issues.
The following year, Tajmar et al. (Reference 44) described the results of an experiment
they had performed to try to validate their conclusions about the anomalous London
moment, which they termed the “gravitomagnetic London moment.” The experiment
involved spinning niobium and high-temperature ceramic superconductor rings at LHe
temperatures. No external magnetic fields were applied. They claimed to have found
the expected large gravitomagnetic field as detected by nearby accelerometers that
matched to within a factor of 1.5 of their theoretical results. Eric Davis at the Institute
for Advances Studies in Austin has raised concerns about the theoretical basis for the
claim. Davis contends (Reference 45) that the basis for calculating the Cooper pair
mass is still so fraught with uncertainties as to leave Tajmar’s mass anomaly
unfounded. This leaves the theoretical basis of Tajmar’s experiment in some doubt.
There were also several concerns about the experimental design and protocol.
By 2007, Tajmar (Reference 46) recognized that new data from improved experiments
did not match their prior predictions. Nevertheless, an unexplained residual signal
persisted that exhibited several unexpected features, including a relatively large
coupling constant of 10°° between the observed acceleration effect and the applied
angular velocity. The effect appears to be proportional to angular momentum and
inversely proportional to temperature after passing a critical temperature (which is
dependent on the material of the spinning ring and is not coincident with the
superconducting critical temperature). In addition, the effect is more pronounced in the
clockwise rotation direction (as viewed from above), and it does not decay as a dipole
field would. While Tajmar et al. endeavor to address all possible systematic errors or
prosaic explanations, they conclude that the “measurements rule out our previous
theoretical model that predicted a coupling proportional to the material’s Cooper pair
and lattice mass density.” The residual signal observed in the most recent experiments
remains unexplained.
After Tajmar et al. considered improvements to the apparatus suggested by other
researchers, Tajmar’s effect continued to approach the noise floor. Unfortunately, the
explanations Tajmar provided in 2008 (Reference 47) for the residual effects became
more difficult to understand and believe. It is not known whether Tajmar is continuing
the experimentation at present.
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As of this writing, there have been no further pronouncements from Podkletnov. No one
has published a replication of his “gravity beam” experiment, and as time passes, more
and more scientists are coming to the conclusion that the experiment was never
actually performed. Concerns about experimental procedures are not confined to the
fringe, either. Final analysis of the Gravity Probe B satellite data is also apparently in
serious difficulty (Reference 48), adding weight to the conclusion that experimentation
in this area is fraught with difficulty even for the most experienced researchers.
Conclusion
Although the payoff of the discovery of a superconductor-mediated interaction between
matter and gravity would be tremendous, only a few researchers are pursuing this goal.
The main reason for this is the adherence to dogma concerning the impossibility of
increasing the matter/electromagnetic coupling coefficients. This adherence is
reinforced by reputable physicists pointing out that the theoretical constructs presented
so far are based on questionable foundations. As with any forays into the unknown, one
has to accept a few bumps along the way, including sometimes going back to the
starting point in order to start again. The likelihood of scientific ridicule is extremely
high in the search for laboratory-scale gravitational interactions.
Increased understanding of the nature of high-temperature superconductivity will be
advantageous in setting the firm basis from which to proceed. True scientists will
continue to speculate about the ideas considered above, whether outlandish or not.
Experiments will continue until either funding runs out or theory proves unequivocally
that the expected effects will be far too small to see; however, experimentalists must
ensure that other researchers have complete information so they can replicate
experiments. Theory will continue regardless, but theoreticians must ensure that the
scientific foundations are correct, and experimentalists must remain wary of potential
traps.
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