  The possible connection between the electromagnetic zero-point field (ZPF)
and the inertia reaction force was first pointed out by Haisch, Rueda, and
Puthoff (Phys. Rev. A, 49, 678, 1994), and then by Rueda and Haisch following a
totally different and more satisfactory approach (Found. Phys., 28, 1057, 1998;
Phys. Letters A, 240, 115, 1998; Annalen der Physik, 10 (5), 393, 2001). In the
present paper, the approach taken by Rueda and Haisch will be followed, but the
analysis will be done within a formulation that uses nonrelativistic quantum
electrodynamics with the creation and annihilation operators rather than the
approach of Rueda and Haisch using stochastic electrodynamics. We analyze the
interaction between the zero-point field and an object under hyperbolic motion
(constant proper acceleration), and find that there arises a reaction force
which is proportional in magnitude, and opposite in direction, to the
acceleration. This is suggestive of what we know as inertia. We also point out
that the equivalence principle -- that inertial mass and gravitational mass
have the same values -- follows naturally using this approach. Inertial mass
and gravitational mass are not merely equal, they are the identical thing
viewed from two complementary perspectives (Annalen der Physik, 14 (8), 479,
2005). In the first case an object accelerating through the electromagnetic
zero-point field experiences resistance from the field. In the case of an
object held fixed in a gravitational field, the electromagnetic zero-point
field propagates on curved geodesics, in effect accelerating with respect to
the fixed object, thereby generating weight. Hence, the equivalence principle
does not need to be independently postulated.
