Can light signals travel faster than c in nontrivial vacua in flat space-time? Relativistic causality II

2007/05/01 by H. Fearn, Heidi Fearn · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #quant-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1134/s1054660x07050155

published as LaserPhys.17:695-699,2007 · 12 pages no figures

openalex publication_date 2007/05/01 · arxiv created 2007/06/04 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

In this paper, we show that the Scharnhorst effect (vacuum with boundaries or a Casimir-type vacuum) cannot be used to generate signals showing measurable faster-than- c speeds. Furthermore, we aim to show that the Scharnhorst effect would violate special relativity, by allowing for a variable speed of light in a vacuum, unless one can specify a small invariant length scale. This invariant length scale would be agreed upon by all inertial observers. We hypothesize the approximate scale of the invariant length.

Citations

• Quantum noise and superluminal propagation
• The Theory of Photons and Electrons: The Relativistic Quantum Field Theory of Charged Particles with Spin One-half
• On the Theory of Dispersion of X-Rays
• Signal Velocity, Causality, and Quantum Noise in Superluminal Light Pulse Propagation
• Classical Electrodynamics
• Classical Electrodynamics

Cited by

• Faster-than-light [wikipedia]