Quantum Retarded Field Engine

Abstract

Recent efforts to conceptually design a technologically meaningful electromagnetic retarded engine indicated that this can only be done using the immense charge and current densities which exist in the atomic scale. However, this scale cannot be described by Newtonian physics, and only a quantum description will suffice to describe the dynamics of an electron on this scale properly. Here we study the retarded field quantum engine and highlight the differences between the quantum and the classical retarded engines. It is emphasized that the constituents of the retarded engine studied in the current paper do not move in relativistic speeds, hence they are analyzed using un-relativistic classical mechanics and un-relativistic quantum mechanics (Schrödinger’s equations). The retardation effect is due to the finite propagation speed of the field and not the relativistic motion of the particles.