Physicists observe optical vortices moving faster than light
Updated
Updated · Scientific American · Apr 30
Physicists observe optical vortices moving faster than light
11 articles · Updated · Scientific American · Apr 30
Ido Kaminer's team at Technion used a custom microscope to track dark spots in hexagonal boron nitride, where polaritons move about 100 times slower than light.
The Nature study says oppositely charged singularities accelerated each other to superluminal speeds before annihilating, confirming a prediction from the 1970s.
Researchers said the vortices carry no mass, energy or information, so causality is preserved, and the technique could help probe ultrafast processes and quantum information in materials.
How does a unique ceramic let scientists film 'nothing' moving faster than light, proving a 50-year-old physics theory?
If dark spots in light can break the light-speed barrier, what does this mean for future quantum information technologies?
Einstein's cosmic speed limit has a new loophole; could this effect also be found in gravitational waves from black holes?