I've heard of Zero Point Field and Planck's Theory. Are they the same?

Answer 1

Actually they are antithetical. Zero point is what it sounds like...a zero dimension point. Zero point is also called a singularity. In simple terms, it means dividing by zero...and we all know what happens then. By creating a singularity, a field of energy (the zero point field) would be created and tapped. Zero point energy has long been a scifi source of infinite energy (e.g., the Incredibles).

Planck was a wave man who thought all could eventually be explained as waves rather than quanta. But DeBroglie was the most famous wave person. Eventually Planck was convinced that quanta were more accurate models for the subatomic world. I don't think Einstein ever endorsed quanta despite the overwhelming evidence in the lab. [See source.]

Answer 2

Planck was one of the founders of Quantum Mechanics. Unlike Newtonian mechanics and Special Relativity, it was a community effort, as opposed to a single genius. The zero point energy is the energy of a quantum system below which it cannot go.

There are highly speculative hypotheses and (more often) science fiction plots which assume that the real zero point energy is much lower that one it generally presumed to be. This suggests that a new form of matter, held together by a mysterious "zero point field", can be created from conventional forms (or even the vacuum itself), resulting in the release of gobs of energy.

In some scenarios, the new matter is conveniently transported out of our observable universe, eliminating a potentially embarrassing waste disposal problem. In other scenarios, the new matter, once formed, grows exponentially or, worse yet, transforms the vacuum into a new lower energy state which expands at the speed of light destroying all in its wake. This is not as convenient.

One sci fi story along the latter lines was an episode of the TV show Lex, where earth is classified as having a "class 17 (or whatever) civilization" living on it. This is defined as one who's planet in on the verge of collapsing to the size of a pea due to the search for a new particle. Arthur Clark's novel "Songs of distant earth" assumes the more convient form.