Heidi Fearn
Summary
Heidi Fearn is an American physicist at California State University, Fullerton, who has collaborated extensively with James_Woodward on the experimental and theoretical investigation of Mach-effect thrust proposals. She is also active in mainstream quantum optics and quantum-mechanical foundations.
Life
Fearn earned her PhD in physics at the University of Essex (UK) in 1988, working on cavity quantum electrodynamics. She held postdoctoral positions in the US and joined Cal State Fullerton, where she has been on the faculty since the early 1990s.
Her primary publication record is in quantum optics — laser physics, cavity QED, photon statistics. Since the mid-2000s she has additionally collaborated on Mach-effect-thruster experiments and theory with Woodward.
Key Contributions
Mach-effect theoretical derivation
Fearn 2015 (Foundations of Physics 45: 1300) provides a careful re-derivation of the Mach-effect mass-fluctuation formula, addressing several of the standard mainstream-physics objections to Woodward's earlier derivations. The paper is one of the more rigorous technical treatments of the Mach-effect framework.
Experimental Mach-effect programme
With Woodward and other CSUF collaborators, Fearn has co-authored AIAA Joint Propulsion Conference papers reporting Mach-effect thruster test results. The programme emphasises careful exclusion of thermal-expansion and electromagnetic-artifact mechanisms.
Quantum optics
Approximately 50 mainstream papers on cavity QED, photon statistics, and quantum-optics foundations.
Reception
Fearn's quantum-optics work is respected in mainstream physics. Her Mach-effect work is regarded with the same mixture of interest and skepticism as the broader Woodward programme.
Bibliography
- Fearn, H., Woodward, J. F. (2015). "Recent results of an investigation of Mach-effect thrusters." AIAA Joint Propulsion Conference 2015-4082.
- Fearn, H. (2015). "Mach's principle and impulsive thrust effects." Foundations of Physics 45: 1300–1318.
Plus approximately 50 mainstream quantum-optics papers.
See Also
External Links
- Cal State Fullerton Physics faculty page.
References
- As above.
