| Claims | Spin-spin interaction can be transmitted through space at speeds of at least up to 109 times the speed of light via a special kind of field, making faster-than-light travel, extra-sensory perception, homeopathy, levitation, and other paranormal phenomena possible. |
|---|---|
| Related scientific disciplines | Physics |
| Year proposed | 1987 |
| Original proponents | A. Akimov, G. Shipov |
| Subsequent proponents | A. Akimov, G. Shipov, A. A. Shpilman, J. Sarfatti, R. N. Boyd, Richard C. Hoagland |
| Pseudoscientific concepts | |
A torsion field (also called axion field, spin field, spinor field, and microlepton field) is a pseudoscientific[1] theory of energy in which the quantum spin of particles can be used to cause emanations lacking mass and energy to carry information through a vacuum at one billion times the speed of light. The theory, conceived in the Soviet Union by a group of physicists in the 1980s, is loosely based on Einstein-Cartan theory and some variant solutions of Maxwell's equations.[2] The group, led by Anatoly Akimov and Gennady Shipov,[3] began the research as the state-sponsored Center for Nontraditional Technologies. However, the group disbanded in 1991 when their research was exposed as a fraud and an embezzlement of government funding by Ye. B. Aleksandrov; yet, for unknown reasons Akimov and Shipov received financing for torsion field research from the Ministry of Science from 1992 to 1995 and from the Ministry of Defense from 1996 to 1997, and continued further secretly,[2] as a private enterprise called The International Institute for Theoretical and Applied Physics (later called UVITOR).[4] Presently championed outside of established scientific research due to its lack of scientific recognition, the theory has been used to proclaim faster-than-light travel (FTL), extra-sensory perception (ESP), homeopathy, levitation, and other paranormal phenomena, and has been used to provide a rationale for the purported functioning of miracle cures and similar products.
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In physics, a field is an assignment of a quantity (vector, tensor, or spinor) to every point of the space containing it. The word torsion refers to any variable that describes rotation. Thus, torsion fields do exist. For example, an electromagnetic wave with circular polarization or the stress tensor of a solid body under torsion stress can be described as torsion fields, although such usage is rare. Spinor fields, in particular fermionic fields, are existing concepts from particle physics and quantum field theory.
Beyond this established research, advocates of the scientific spin field or torsion field theories claim that spin-spin interaction — itself a well-studied quantum phenomenon — can be transmitted through space similar to electromagnetic waves, does not carry mass or energy but only information, and does so at speeds of up to 109 times the speed of light. At the same time they claim that spin-spin interaction is carried by neutrinos — which have very little mass and high energy — that it does not interact with matter but, at the same time, can be generated and detected easily.[5]
Despite the fact that several contradictions have been identified in the basic postulates of these theories[6] (as have several statements that are considered nonsensical by mainstream science[6]), torsion field theory has been embraced by some as the scientific explanation of homeopathy, telepathy, telekinesis, levitation, clairvoyance, ESP, and other paranormal phenomena. The harnessing of torsion fields has been claimed to make everything possible from miracle cure devices (including devices that cure alcohol addiction[7]) to working perpetual motion machines, stargates,[8] UFO propulsion analogs, and weapons of mass destruction( WMDs).[9] Some such devices, in particular the miracle cure boxes, have been patented,[10] manufactured and sold.
Torsion field theories are sometimes presented as alternatives to general relativity. Examples of this include the Einstein-Cartan Theory and gauge theories of gravitation for the Poincaré and the affine groups, which seek to add torsion of space-time to the curvature-based description of gravity; and thereby predict a multitude of new physical effects. However, the predicted effects of such alternative theories are either infinitesimal or directly contradict the experimental evidence.[11] It may be shown that space-time curvature and torsion are alternative ways of describing the gravitational field and are completely interchangeable, while attempts to account for them simultaneously produce inconsistencies.[12]
Proponents of torsion field theories have sought large-scale government and military contracts at different times, starting with the 1987 application to the Ministry of Defence of the USSR requesting funding to develop "highly-reliable detection of an enemy strategic weapons (ICBM, nuclear submarine, aircraft, etc.); the long-range destruction of enemy strategic weapons without contact; covert jamming-resistant communications with objects in outer space, on Earth, underground, and underwater; mobile equipment on gravitational principles; and psychophysical and biomedical influence on troops and the population"[2] The Soviet government allocated 500 million rubles (about US$700 million at today's exchange rate) for this research.[13]
Another example of such funding applications was an experiment conducted in 1994 by the Russian private research group "VENT" (VEnture for Non-traditional Technologies,[6]) which claimed to lower the resistivity of copper to as little as 1/80th of its normal value after exposing it to a torsion field generator. The group applied to the government of the Russian Federation for funding to open a factory, and promised great savings in energy consumption. The samples of exposed and unexposed copper were independently tested in presence of a VENT representative and their resistivities were not only found to be identical [(2.08+/-0.02)×10−7 Ωm and (2.05+/-0.02)×10−7 Ωm], but worse than industrial copper as well (1.7×10−8 Ωm).[6]
More recently, in 2002, an application was made for oil drilling licenses in Russia and the UK using "microlepton technologies."[14]
The Russian Academy of Sciences, and official science in general, did not recognize either the invention or the theory supporting it. Academics refuse to even discuss the device or the anti-gravitation theory proposed by Shipov. The patent application was rejected, because the device went against the laws of established physics.[1]