Spontaneous free-particle acceleration in quantum electrodynamics with a real electromagnetic zero-point field

Abstract

It is shown that if the electromagnetic zero-point field (ZPF) of quantum electrodynamics (QED) is taken in the realistic sense, at least within the nonrelativistic approximation of QED, free unconfined electromagnetically interacting particles increase their translational kinetic energies when exclusively submitted to the action of the ZPF. This prediction is assessed and compared with other well-known difficulties associated with a realistic version of the ZPF concept. A parallel with an analogous acceleration phenomenon predicted in stochastic electrodynamics (SED) is given and possible astrophysical applications are suggested. It is shown that neither QED, with ZPF, nor SED lead to the Schr\"odinger equation (SE) of ordinary quantum mechanics, despite interesting arguments to the contrary, due precisely to this acceleration prediction.