Superluminal Effects Research Articles

Fast-Light Enhanced Brillouin Laser Based Active Fiber Optic Sensor for Simultaneous Measurement of Rotation and Strain

We have developed a conceptual design for an Active Fast Light Fiber Optic Sensor (AFLIFOS) that can perform simultaneously or separately as a gyroscope (differential mode effect) and a sensor for acceleration, strain, and other common mode effects. Two Brillouin lasers in opposite directions and separated in frequency by several free spectral ranges are used for this sensor. By coupling two auxiliary resonators to the primary fiber resonator, we produce superluminal effects for two laser modes. We develop a detailed theoretical model for optimizing the design of the AFLIFOS, and show that the enhancement factor of the sensitivity is $\sim{187}$ and $\sim{-187}$, respectively for the two Brillouin lasers under the optimized condition, when the effective change in perimeter of the primary fiber resonator is 0.1nm, corresponding to a rotation rate of 0.4 deg/sec for a ring resonator with radius 1m. It may be possible to get much higher enhancement by adjusting the parameters such as the perimeters and the coupling coefficients.

Superluminal wave propagation in a non‐Foster negative capacitor loaded transmission line

Superluminal wave propagation phenomenon achieved from a periodic structure in which a transmission line (TL) is loaded with non-Foster negative capacitors is presented. The loading decreases the effective capacitance and the effective permittivity of the dielectric substrate of the TL. An experimental investigation of the superluminal phase and group velocity in the non-Foster loaded TL is reported. The phase and group velocities are extracted from measured S-parameters. To do so, three non-Foster negative capacitors operating over [50–350 MHz] frequency band are integrated in a TL. Superluminal broadband effects are obtained from 50 to 220 MHz. The negative capacitors loaded TL paves the way to innovative broadband leaky wave antennas, active metamaterial surfaces and cloaking devices.

Formation of solitons and realization of the superluminality effect upon femtosecond pulse propagation in a medium containing gold nanoparticles

Based on computer simulation, we demonstrate the possibility of formation of solitons upon propagation of a femtosecond laser pulse in a medium containing gold nanoparticles in the presence of two-photon light absorption. The solitons are formed when the laser pulse induces a positive phase grating. The speed of solitons substantially exceeds the speed of laser radiation propagating in a linear medium.

Soliton Formation and Superluminality Effect due to Nonlinear Absorption of Femtosecond Laser Pulse Energy by the Medium Containing Nanorods

We investigate a femtosecond pulse propagation in a medium, containing nanorods, with taking into account the dependence of multi-photon absorption from the aspect ratio of nanorods. Nanorods melting due to the laser energy absorption leads to the non-stationary interaction of laser pulse with the medium and time-dependent nanorod aspect ratio changing. Under certain conditions, we found out the soliton-like mode of a laser pulse propagation and the superluminality effect: acceleration of light (fast light) in comparison with light propagation in a linear medium. We discuss a physical mechanism of superluminality effect for considering laser pulse propagation. Using spatio-temporal analogy, one can see the similarity between the pulse centre evolution along longitudinal coordinate and the beam centre evolution under the infrared optical radiation propagation in a cloud, or fog, which moves across the beam, with taking into account its thermal blooming.

Compared propagation characteristics of superluminal and slow light in SOA and EDFA based on rectangle signals

Based on the general mechanism of the coherent population oscillations (CPO) in the Semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA) and Erbium doped fiber amplifiers (EDFA), the group time delay of rectangle signal propagating in the active media is deduced. Compared with the sinusoidal signal, the time delay difference between the fundamental harmonics (FHFD: fundamental harmonic fractional delay) is first investigated in detail for the rectangle signal which is more popularly used in the digital signal systems. The plenty of simulations based on the propagation equations and some experiments for the sinusoidal and rectangle signals are used to analyze the differences and evaluate the slow and superluminal light effects. Furthermore, the time delay/advance always takes place accompanying with the signal distortion, which is evaluated by the total harmonic distortion (THD). The distortion caused by the SOA is smaller than that by the EDFA. A factor Q which is defined to evaluate the trade-off between the FHFD and the THD, shows that higher input power or higher optical gain is better for optical signal processing and optical telecommunications, and the SOA is more suitable for the higher modulation frequency (>10GHz).

Stringent constraint on neutrino Lorentz invariance violation from the two IceCube PeV neutrinos

It has been speculated that Lorentz-invariance violation (LIV) might be generated by quantum-gravity (QG) effects. As a consequence, particles may not travel at the universal speed of light. In particular, superluminal extragalactic neutrinos would rapidly lose energy via the bremssthralung of electron-positron pairs (nu -> nu e+ e-), damping their initial energy into electromagnetic cascades, a figure constrained by Fermi-LAT data. We show that the two cascade neutrino events with energies around 1 PeV recently detected by IceCube -if attributed to extragalactic diffuse events, as it appears likely- can place the strongest bound on LIV in the neutrino sector, namely delta =(v^2-1) < O(10^(-18)), corresponding to a QG scale M_QG ~ 10^5 M_Pl (M_QG >~ 10^(-4) M_Pl) for a linear (quadratic) LIV, at least for models inducing superluminal neutrino effects (delta > 0).

Oscillations of neutrino velocity

In this paper, we consider the problem of quantum measurement of neutrino velocity. We show, that the well known neutrino flavor oscillations are always accompanied by the oscillations of neutrino velocity. In particular, the velocity of a freely moving neutrino is demonstrated to periodically exceed the speed of light. Unfortunately, the superluminal effect turns out to be too small to be experimentally detected. It is also shown that neutrino velocity significantly depends on the energy, size and shape of the neutrino wave packet. Owing to the big experimental error of the recent experiments, these dependences remained unnoticeable. Finally, we have shown that the recent claims that superluminal neutrinos should loose energy during their flight is not true. Instead, our formula suggests the approximate conservation of energy along neutrino trajectory. All these results have been obtained without violation of special theory of relativity.

Super-Luminal Effects for Finsler Branes as a Way to Preserve the Paradigm of Relativity Theories

Using Finsler brane solutions [see details and methods in: S. Vacaru, Class. Quant. Grav. 28 (2011) 215001], we show that neutrinos may surpass the speed of light in vacuum which can be explained by trapping effects from gravity theories on eight dimensional (co) tangent bundles on Lorentzian manifolds to spacetimes in general and special relativity. In nonholonomic variables, the bulk gravity is described by Finsler modifications depending on velocity/ momentum coordinates. Possible super-luminal phenomena are determined by the width of locally anisotropic brane (spacetime) and induced by generating functions and integration functions and constants in coefficients of metrics and nonlinear connections. We conclude that Finsler brane gravity trapping mechanism may explain neutrino super-luminal effects and almost preserve the paradigm of Einstein relativity as the standard one for particle physics and gravity.

Ultra-broadband simultaneous superluminal phase and group velocities in non-Foster epsilon-near-zero metamaterial

Experimental investigation of ultra-broadband simultaneous superluminal phase and group velocity in recently introduced epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) non-Foster metamaterial is reported. The phase and group velocities were extracted both from the measurements of scattering parameters in the frequency domain and the measurements of propagation time of broadband Gaussian pulse in time domain. Reported superluminal effects are extremely broadband (relative bandwidth of 180% (1:20)) and they are fundamentally different from widely reported narrowband experiments based on the anomalous dispersion. The phenomenon of simultaneous superluminal phase and group velocities may find applications in transformation electromagnetic devices and in communication systems.

Subluminal and superluminal parametric doppler effects in the case of light reflection from a moving smooth medium inhomogeneity

The reflection of test radiation from a smooth inhomogeneity of medium characteristics propagating with a subluminal or superluminal velocity is analyzed. The equations describing the propagation of the forward- and counter-propagating waves in such an inhomogeneous medium are derived. Quasi-phase conjugation is demonstrated in the case of superluminal inhomogeneities. The Bragg resonance conditions are formulated and the conditions for increasing the reflection coefficient of radiation from an inhomogeneity are discussed.

Superluminal parametric Doppler effect in insulators and in an electron-positron vacuum

It has been shown that counterpropagating electromagnetic waves with different frequencies generate two lattices in a cubically nonlinear medium, one of which moves at a superluminal velocity. When weak radiation reflects from the superluminal lattice, the wavefront is quasi-conjugated with distortions owing to the Doppler frequency shift. These effects occur both in insulators with fast nonlinearity and in an electron-positron vacuum.

DISPERSION RELATIONS EXPLAINING OPERA DATA FROM DEFORMED LORENTZ TRANSFORMATION

OPERA collaboration has reported evidence of superluminal phenomenon for neutrinos. One of the possible ways to explain the superluminality is to have Lorentz symmetry violated. It has been shown that dispersion relations put forwards has the problem of physics laws vary in different inertial frames leading to conflicting results on Cherenkov-like radiation, pion decay and high energy neutrino cosmic ray. For theories with deformed Lorentz symmetry, by modifying conservation laws corresponding to energy and momentum in the usual Lorentz invariant theory, it is possible to have superluminal effect and at the same time avoid to have conflicts encountered in Lorentz violating theories. We study dispersion relations from deformed Lorentz symmetry. We find that it is possible to have dispersion relations which can be consistent with data on neutrinos. We show that once the superluminality δv as a function of energy is known the corresponding dispersion relation in the deformed Lorentz symmetry can be determined.

Whispering-gallery-mode terahertz pulse propagation on a curved metallic plate

We demonstrate terahertz (THz) pulse propagation on a cylindrical aluminum plate, with low loss and negligible dispersion via transverse-electric type whispering gallery (WG) modes. We observe an apparent superluminal effect where the group velocity is greater than c, and explain this phenomenon by means of a plane-wave description of the WG modes. The propagation loss is dominated by the diffraction loss due to unbounded lateral spreading, with a negligible ohmic-loss contribution. Both experimental and theoretical results indicate a total loss as low as 2.6 dB/m at a frequency of 0.47 THz.

Single-photon propagation through dielectric bandgaps

Theoretical models of photon traversal through quarter-wave dielectric stack barriers that arise due to Bragg reflection predict the saturation of the propagation time with the barrier length, known as the Hartman effect. This saturation is sensitive to the addition of single dielectric layers, varying significantly from sub-luminal to apparently super-luminal and vice versa. Our research tests the suitability of photonic bandgaps as an optical model for the tunneling process. Of particular importance is our observation of subtle structural changes in dielectric stacks drastically affecting photon traversal times, allowing for apparent sub- and super-luminal effects. We also introduce a simple model to link HOM visibility to wavepacket distortion that allows us to exclude this as a possible cause of the loss of contrast in the barrier penetration process.

Why do superluminal pulses become subluminal once they go far enough?

Anomalous dispersion is at the heart of superluminal pulse propagation in dispersive media. Most earlier analyses of these effects have been confined to discussions of pulse shapes or group velocity and group-velocity dispersion, while experiments typically measure the absorbed energy. We investigate the transport of energy in causal dispersive media including superluminal effects, via the time moments of the Poynting vector. We find that superluminal and negative traversal times are invariably accompanied by an initial temporal compression of the pulse. We predict a crossover distance at which superluminal behavior becomes subluminal even when the spectral width of the initial pulse lies well within the anomalous dispersion region. This effect is generic and we offer a theoretical basis for the experimental results of Talukder et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 3546 (2001)]. As the pulse propagates, a strong spectral modification due to dissipation (gain) results in the dominance of normally dispersive spectral components that suffer from lower dissipation (higher gain) and is responsible for this crossover.

Faster than the brighter-light beacon

We analyse the motion of a spot of light projected onto a flat screen by a rotating source.We find that the motion of the spot has many interesting features such as spot splittingand superluminal effects. Our discussion is well suited for undergraduates and can be aninteresting add-on in their curriculum, giving them new insights into the effects ofkinematics.

Apparent superluminal advancement of a single photon far beyond its coherence length

We present experimental results relative to superluminal propagation based on a single photon traversing an optical system, called a 4f-system, which acts singularly on the photon's spectral component phases. A single photon is created by a continuous wave (CW) laser light down-conversion process. The introduction of a linear spectral phase function will lead to the shift of the photon peak far beyond the coherence length of the photon itself (an apparent superluminal propagation of the photon). Superluminal group velocity detection is done by interferometric measurement of the temporally shifted photon with its correlated untouched reference. The observed superluminal photon propagation complies with causality. The operation of the optical system allows the origin of the apparent superluminal photon velocity to be elucidated. The experiment foresees a superluminal effect with single-photon wavepackets.

Experimental investigation of the slow light and superluminal effects in high-quality three-dimensional colloidal photonic crystals

We investigated by time-of-flight technique the slow light and superluminal effects in high-quality three-dimensional （3D） colloidal photonic crystals （PCs） with opal structure, fabricated by pressure controlled isothermal vertical deposition technique. They produce high transmission in the pass bands and sharp band edges due to low volume density of defects and dislocations. The variation of the group velocity across the short-wavelength band edge was measured. Group velocity as low as 0.43c was observed near the band edge while group velocity as high as 1.34c was found in the band gap. We have also simulated the transportation of ultrashort pulses through 3D PCs and compared the simulation results with the experimental ones.

Gravitational Lorentz violation and superluminality via AdS/CFT duality

A weak quantum mechanical coupling is constructed permitting superluminal communication within a preferred region of a gravitating ${\mathrm{AdS}}_{5}$ spacetime. This is achieved by adding a spatially nonlocal perturbation of a special kind to the Hamiltonian of a four-dimensional conformal field theory with a weakly coupled ${\mathrm{AdS}}_{5}$ dual, such as maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. In particular, two issues are given careful treatment: (1) the UV-completeness of our deformed conformal field theory (CFT), guaranteeing the existence of a ``deformed string theory'' AdS dual and (2) the demonstration that superluminal effects can take place in AdS, both on its boundary as well as in the bulk. Exotic Lorentz-violating properties such as these may have implications for tests of general relativity, addressing the cosmological constant problem, or probing behind horizons. Our construction may give insight into the interpretation of wormhole solutions in Euclidean AdS gravity.

Superluminal Effect for Quantum Computation that Utilizes Tunneling Photons.

Superluminal Effect for Quantum Computation that Utilizes Tunneling Photons.