frontiersciences

Can you break the lightspeed barrier? Experimental physics has never been able to establish that a particle–or wave–can actually travel faster than the speed of light (in a vacuum–light can be slowed down in dense media) but science fiction stories abound about "hyperdrives", "warp speed", "wormholes" etc. where by some strange mechanism, one can "bend" the rules of physics to provide FTL travel. Now 2 German Scientists have claimed to "broken the speed of light"–if this is true, then I can finally build my long-range transporter! We will be following this story with interest!

The speed of light is not constant–for example the speed of light in a vacuum (186.,000 mps) is not the same as in water, air or other dense media. Here in Denmark a physicist has actually slowed down light quite a bit, so the question is, can it be speeded up, as
we know from Star Trek’s "warp drive"?? The Koblenz experiments involve single photons over a very short distance, so this is far from a hyperdrive, but of course we will be following the experiments closely, and they will be printed in the New Scientist shortly (only a preview of the article is on the newscientist.com site today).

Scott

‘We Have Broken Speed of Light’
NIC FLEMING, Science Correspondent – Telegraph (U.K.)

Extraordinary claims, require extraordinary proof. We will have to wait and see if replications are reported.

A pair of German physicists claim to have broken the speed of light – an achievement that would undermine our entire understanding of space and time.

According to Einstein’s special theory of relativity, it would require an infinite amount of energy to propel an object at more than 186,000 miles per second.

However, Dr Gunter Nimtz and Dr Alfons Stahlhofen, of the University of Koblenz, say they may have breached a key tenet of that theory.
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The pair say they have conducted an experiment in which microwave photons – energetic packets of light – travelled "instantaneously" between a pair of prisms that had been moved up to 3ft apart.

Being able to travel faster than the speed of light would lead to a wide variety of bizarre consequences.

For instance, an astronaut moving faster than it would theoretically arrive at a destination before leaving.

The scientists were investigating a phenomenon called quantum tunnelling, which allows sub-atomic particles to break apparently unbreakable laws.

Dr Nimtz told New Scientist magazine: "For the time being, this is the only violation of special relativity that I know of."

fron the New Scientist:

Article Preview
Photons flout the light speed limit

* 17 August 2007
* Mark Anderson
* Magazine issue 2617

IT’S a speed record that is supposed to be impossible to break. Yet two physicists are now claiming they have propelled photons faster than the speed of light. This would be in direct violation of a key tenet of Einstein’s special theory of relativity that states that nothing, under any circumstance, can exceed the speed of light.

Günter Nimtz and Alfons Stahlhofen of the University of Koblenz, Germany, have been exploring a phenomenon in quantum optics called photon tunnelling, which occurs when a particle slips across an apparently uncrossable barrier. The pair say they have now tunnelled photons "instantaneously" across a barrier of various sizes, from a few millimetres up to a metre. Their conclusion is that the photons traverse the barrier much faster than the speed of light.

To see how far they could make photons tunnel, Nimtz and Stahlhofen sandwiched two glass prisms together to make a …

London, Aug 16 (ANI): Two German physicists from the University of Koblenz claim to have broken the speed of light.

According to Einstein’s special theory of relativity, it would require an infinite amount of energy to propel an object at more than 186,000 miles per second.

However, Dr Gunter Nimtz and Dr Alfons Stahlhofen, say have possibly breached a key tenet of that theory.

They say they have conducted an experiment in which microwave photons – energetic packets of light – traveled “instantaneously” between a pair of prisms that had been moved up to three feet apart.

The duo say being able to travel faster than the speed of light would lead to a wide variety of bizarre consequences.

For instance, an astronaut moving faster than it would theoretically arrive at a destination before leaving, they said.

The scientists said they were investigating a phenomenon called quantum tunnelling, which allows sub-atomic particles to break apparently unbreakable laws.

“For the time being, this is the only violation of special relativity that I know of,” the Daily Telegraph quoted Dr Nimtz as telling New Scientist magazine. (ANI)