Paul J.Werbos

National Science Foundation

room 675, Arlington VA 22230, USA

pwerbos@nsf.gov

Every so often, in science, new empirical results compel us to reconsider exactly what we really do know and do not know with mathematical certainty about fundamental principles. Startling but highly credible results from Greffet et al. and from Popovic's group raise serious questions about the conventional understanding of the Second Law of thermodynamics. Prigogine, in his last years, argued that the patterns of order and life we see in the universe would have been possible, in equilibrium, in a universe of infinite lifetime, even without a Big Bang, because of field effects. Huw Price has provided compelling arguments to prefer the initial formulation of Hawkings' theory of the Big Bang-the version in which the arrow of time sometimes flows backwards in time, with profound implications for the foundations of quantum measurement. This paper will offer one possible unified view of these issues, and suggest that new technologies may in fact be possible in principle.

The purpose of this paper is to suggest a possible resolution to certain contradictions which have emerged in recent research across a wide variety of fields. The mathematical details of this picture certainly need to be filled in, but it is hoped that this paper will be a useful starting point for future research.

The immediate starting point for this work was a set of three independent pieces of work: 1) highly credible theoretical and empirical papers by Greffet et al suggesting that about 10 percent of the infrared heat energy radiated by certain nanopatterned materials comes out as infrared radiation coherent to a few wavelengths and focused in its direction of propagation; 2) highly credible theoretical and empirical work by Popovic's group, showing how "totally incoherent ambient" microwave radiation in the 3-18 GHz band can be converted to useful electricity with 20 percent efficiency, using spiral rectennas 3) a proposal by Martin Margala of Rochester to adapt a new type of rectifier to allow rectification of (heat) radiation in the 3-18 THz band, even without exploiting any temperature difference in the ambient environment.

These pieces of work seem to suggest that it should be possible to convert heat to electricity (free energy) on earth. But that suggestion constitutes gross heresy, in light of the conventional understanding of the Second Law of thermodynamics.

In actuality, the literature on the Second Law is very fragmented, and far less conclusive than is commonly believed. This paper will argue that it probably is possible, in principle, to convert ambient heat on earth to electricity after all. Furthermore, it will discuss some connections to the issues of quantum foundations and of the physical basis for life.

The next section will summarize the picture which appears to emerge when I try to reconcile a wide variety of contradictory sources. Section 3 will include some additional details for each of the points in section 2, in order. Section 4, added as this paper goes to press, suggests a strategy for implementing some of the ideas regarding classical-quantum equivalence given in section 3c.