X-Message-Number: 13976
From: "George Smith" <>
References: <>
Subject: Re: Speed of light broken reference
Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2000 12:00:25 -0700

Since I have been inundated with email from people wanting to know about
this news (don't you guys ever read the headlines?) here is my first search
result.  Or read it when it is published in the next issue of NATURE:

Source: Sunday Times - London
Published: June 4, 2000 Author: Jonathan Leake, Science Editor
Posted on 06/03/2000 17:28:30 PDT by Colonel Chabert

SCIENTISTS claim they have broken the ultimate speed barrier: the speed of
light.

In research carried out in the United States, particle physicists have shown
that light pulses can be accelerated to up to 300 times their normal
velocity of 186,000 miles per second.

The implications, like the speed, are mind-boggling. On one interpretation
it means that light will arrive at its destination almost before it has
started its journey. In effect, it is leaping forward in time.

Exact details of the findings remain confidential because they have been
submitted to Nature, the international scientific journal, for review prior
to possible publication.

The work was carried out by Dr Lijun Wang, of the NEC research institute in
Princeton, who transmitted a pulse of light towards a chamber filled with
specially treated caesium gas.

Before the pulse had fully entered the chamber it had gone right through it
and travelled a further 60ft across the laboratory. In effect it existed in
two places at once, a phenomenon that Wang explains by saying it travelled
300 times faster than light.

The research is already causing controversy among physicists. What bothers
them is that if light could travel forward in time it could carry
information. This would breach one of the basic principles in physics -
causality, which says that a cause must come before an effect. It would also
shatter Einstein's theory of relativity since it depends in part on the
speed of light being unbreachable.

This weekend Wang said he could not give details but confirmed: "Our light
pulses did indeed travel faster than the accepted speed of light. I hope it
will give us a much better understanding of the nature of light and how it
behaves."

Dr Raymond Chiao, professor of physics at the University of California at
Berkeley, who is familiar with Wang's work, said he was impressedby the
findings. "This is a fascinating experiment," he said.

In Italy, another group of physicists has also succeeded in breaking the
light speed barrier. In a newly published paper, physicists at the Italian
National Research Council described how they propagated microwaves at 25%
above normal light speed. The group speculates that it could be possible to
transmit information faster than light.

Dr Guenter Nimtz, of Cologne University, an expert in the field, agrees. He
believes that information can be sent faster than light and last week gave a
paper describing how it could be done to a conference in Edinburgh. He
believes, however, that this will not breach the principle of causality
because the time taken to interpret the signal would fritter away all the
savings.

"The most likely application for this is not in time travel but in speeding
up the way signals move through computer circuits," he said.

Wang's experiment is the latest and possibly the most important evidence
that the physical world may not operate according to any of the accepted
conventions.

In the new world that modern science is beginning to perceive, sub-atomic
particles can apparently exist in two places at the same time - making no
distinction between space and time.

Separate experiments carried out by Chiao illustrate this. He showed that in
certain circumstances photons - the particles of which light is made - could
apparently jump between two points separated by a barrier in what appears to
be zero time. The process, known as tunnelling, has been used to make some
of the most sensitive electron microscopes.

The implications of Wang's experiments will arouse fierce debate. Many will
question whether his work can be interpreted as proving that light can
exceed its normal speed - suggesting that another mechanism may be at work.

Neil Turok, professor of mathematical physics at Cambridge University, said
he awaited the details with interest, but added: "I doubt this will change
our view of the fundamental laws of physics."

Wang emphasises that his experiments are relevant only to light and may not
apply to other physical entities. But scientists are beginning to accept
that man may eventually exploit some of these characteristics for
inter-stellar space travel.

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=13976