Pilot Wave Theory Proposed by Researchers to Explain EM Drive

There’a an interesting thread on the Vortex-l mailing list which is discussing an article published in the Journal of Applied Physical Science International titled “A Possible Explanation for the EM Drive Based on a Pilot Wave Theory.”

The authors are J. R. Croca, P. Castro, M. Gatta AND L. Gurriana, all from Portugal.

Scientific literature refers to a strange observed phenomenon, “impossible” according to traditional physics, looking at the experimental feasibility of the so called “EM Drive”. The authors have called it an Impulsive Thrust from a Closed Radio-Frequency Cavity in Vacuum. Here we present a possible explanation for the observed thrust based on the conceptual framework of Eurhythmic Physics, a kind of pilot-wave theory aiming at bridging the gap between quantum and macroscopic systems. Applied to the present system, a generalized guidance condition could explain the claimed absence of reaction of the material of the drive on the enclosed fields.

http://www.ikpress.org/abstract/6485

The full text is not available for free.

The Science Alert website published this article about the paper, and one of the authors, Paulo Castro is quoted as saying:

“We have found that applying a pilot wave theory to NASA’s EM drive frustum [or cone], we could explain its thrust without involving any external action applied to the system, as Newton’s third law would require.”

Pilot wave theory is not widely accepted within physics. It differs from conventional quantum mechanics in that is posits that instead of the random location of particles, particles have actual predictable locations, and they exist along tracks cause by physical waves. The video below provides a more detailed explanation.