Superluminal work of NEC Labs in 2000 debunked in 2011 paper in PRL
Back in the year 2000, LBE covered a story on so-called superluminal propagation (see for example the IPBiz post
Superluminal propagation: nine years later).
Further de-bunking of the claim of the year 2000 has now appeared in Physical Review Letters in the year 2011. See
Hong Kong scientists 'show time travel is impossible' which includes the text:
The possibility of time travel was raised 10 years ago when scientists discovered superluminal -- or faster-than-light -- propagation of optical pulses in some specific medium, the team said.
It was later found to be a visual effect, but researchers thought it might still be possible for a single photon to exceed light speed.
Du, however, believed Einstein was right and determined to end the debate by measuring the ultimate speed of a single photon, which had not been done before.
LBE's original article titled Anatomy of a Superluminal Technical Story appears on the ReedSmith website, without attributing authorship to LBE. The scientific work by Lijun Wang in 2000 originated from NEC labs in New Jersey and was published in Nature.
One wonders if there will be an update to Kitta MacPherson, "Lab test exceeds speed of light," Newark Star-Ledger, p. A1 (July 20, 2000).
Superluminal propagation: nine years later).
Further de-bunking of the claim of the year 2000 has now appeared in Physical Review Letters in the year 2011. See
Hong Kong scientists 'show time travel is impossible' which includes the text:
The possibility of time travel was raised 10 years ago when scientists discovered superluminal -- or faster-than-light -- propagation of optical pulses in some specific medium, the team said.
It was later found to be a visual effect, but researchers thought it might still be possible for a single photon to exceed light speed.
Du, however, believed Einstein was right and determined to end the debate by measuring the ultimate speed of a single photon, which had not been done before.
LBE's original article titled Anatomy of a Superluminal Technical Story appears on the ReedSmith website, without attributing authorship to LBE. The scientific work by Lijun Wang in 2000 originated from NEC labs in New Jersey and was published in Nature.
One wonders if there will be an update to Kitta MacPherson, "Lab test exceeds speed of light," Newark Star-Ledger, p. A1 (July 20, 2000).
posted by Lawrence B. Ebert at 7:34 AM
1 Comments:
Here's a Java applet that shows graphically how the "superluminal" illusion is achieved:
http://gregegan.customer.netspace.net.au/APPLETS/20/20.html
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