Scientists break the speed of light

I thought this would be one that never changed. If this is true does this mean that distances in space will change? Sorry if posted already.

www.dailymail.co.uk...

[edit on 16-8-2007 by StinkyDerSon]

Stinky, good find. Actually I'm not too surprised. As we learn more in the realm of Quantum Physics, there are bound to be some things that are new simply because of the strange landscape there.

Just as Newton's laws were expanded in the early 20th century, so to will physics need to expand to accept these new findings.

But first, this new data will need to go through a great deal more testing.

A Simaliar experiment had beed suscessfully tested before.

www.cbc.ca...

Pretty cool stuff!

It's not surprising. I think light is infinite, it just has a speed in our finite bubble universe. This speed of light allows us to make rational sense of our immediate surroundings even though our surroundings is one aspect of a much bigger reality.

Imagine the multiverse as a wave of potential realities. We are one reality being experienced and in another bubble universe another reality is unfolding. We are all interconnected because a particle that makes up my body could be one aspect of a wave function that's connected to another particle that makes up a being in another bubble universe. This also explains many paranormal events. Because we are entangled realities we interact with each other but it is an indirect connection. Like we might catch a glimpse of another human in a parallel universe and we will say we saw a ghost and they probably say the same thing. I think things like this will allow us to communicate with other bubble universes eventually.

[edit on 16-8-2007 by polomontana]

see other post with source

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by kleverone
A Simaliar experiment had beed suscessfully tested before.

www.cbc.ca...

Pretty cool stuff!

The light is traveling 100's of times faster than the speed of light in the experiment provided in the link.

It seems to me the most obvious explanation is we really dont know what the upper limit of the speed of light is or even if there is one.

Reported here too on Sky News

news.sky.com...

Thought you might like to read this too!

Does anyone know how this tunneling experiment was different from other similar experiments? We've known about quantum tunneling for quite some time, and only now someone manages to tunnel something faster than light? Was there something special about this case, or was this the first time tunneling speed was measured, or what?

How does the dual nature of light play into this and could that explain the seemingly impossible measurements? I'd also like to note that these aren't direct measurements. Nothing was ever clocked going faster than the speed of light; rather, speed was measured indirectly by comparison. Seems like this is a distant cousin of Shrodinger's Cat. Since light is affected by observation, how are the results of this experiment seen as valid? I would think that this is only an interesting quantom quirk and that the light only appears to arrive at the same time.

I'm no physicist so do blow holes in my thoughts if you can. I'd like to believe in faster-than-light travel. Even if it was only light doing the traveling, the applications would be very useful.

p.s. polomontana: what do you mean by 'light is infinite'? In what way? Not being a jerk, just curious.

Avingard,

When I say light is infinite, I mean in it's purest state light has no speed. The speed of light occurs within these bubble universes so we can measure the potential reality that we are observing. The speed of light allows us to measure "things." We are essentially projections of these potential realities.

All that exists is infinite potential in the form of pure energy. Quantum fluctuations occur and these potential realities are formed. A quantum fluctuation occurs and a vacuum occurs. This pure energy seeps into say a 3 dimensional space and a potential reality is formed. Dr. Michio Kaku says constant creation is happening in a sea of nirvana.

Originally posted by DragonsDemesne
Does anyone know how this tunneling experiment was different from other similar experiments? We've known about quantum tunneling for quite some time, and only now someone manages to tunnel something faster than light? Was there something special about this case, or was this the first time tunneling speed was measured, or what?

Maybe it was the first time they transmitted information FTL? I know they've managed to increase Group Velocity but if they managed to increase the Signal Velocity, then this changes everything...

Here’s another link:

www.dailytech.com...

This news sounds very exciting, and hopefully it will be repeated successfully.

Sigh, I knew this was too good to be true...

arstechnica.com...

The paper in question has no data at all so; although it asserts that it has measured superluminal velocities, it offers nothing to back that up. It also has very little in the way of experimental detail, so we can't determine with certainty what they are measuring, making it very difficult to evaluate their claims. We'll take as close a look as we can, given these limitations.

/snip

So, how are these authors measuring an excessive speed of light? In practical terms, most experiments measure light in terms of what is called the group velocity, which is how fast a pulse propagates along an underlying carrier frequency. This can, in some circumstances, lead to the pulses traveling faster than the speed of light in the medium they're in, but not faster than light in vacuum. Although the setup in the new paper is not entirely clear, they were measuring the arrival time of pulses, which means we're talking about group velocity rather than the actual speed of light.

Here is the actual "Paper" arxiv.org...

This paper was only "Published" on arxiv, which is not a Peer Review Journal.

If the light passed through quantum tunnels, that doesn't necessarily mean that it traveled faster than light. If my understanding of quantum tunnels is adequate, it would just mean that the light passing through the tunnels traveled a shorter distance than the light that did not pass through the quantum tunnels.

I hope this is a good analogy(please correct if wrong), but this is how I visualize it.

The tunnel acts like a canal would when a wave comes along, it focuses the wave and the leading edge leaps ahead due to the confined area and at that moment the group velocity spikes. The leading edge is literally squeezed ahead by the confining walls. That is how I view it at least. Information still cannot travel FTL in this case, though as the paper is still in pre-published form, the validity of the work in question still remains to be seen. The paper itself even looks incomplete.

[edit on 17-8-2007 by sardion2000]

Polomontana is almost so right it's not funny/is funny.