Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

New property of light discovered
Phys.org ^ | 06/28/2019 | Bob Yirka, Science X Network,

Posted on 06/28/2019 5:19:41 PM PDT by BenLurkin

Beams with highly structured angular momentum are said to have orbital angular momentum (OAM), and are called vortex beams. They appear as a helix surrounding a common center, and when they strike a flat surface, they appear as doughnut-shaped. In this new effort, the researchers were working with OAM beams when they found the light behaving in a way that had never been seen before.

The experiments involved firing two lasers at a cloud of argon gas—doing so forced the beams to overlap, and they joined and were emitted as a single beam from the other side of the argon cloud. The result was a type of vortex beam. The researchers then wondered what would happen if the lasers had different orbital angular momentum and if they were slightly out of sync. This resulted in a beam that looked like a corkscrew with a gradually changing twist. And when the beam struck a flat surface, it looked like a crescent moon. The researchers noted that looked at another way, a single photon at the front of the beam was orbiting around its center more slowly than a photon at the back of the beam. The researchers promptly dubbed the new property self-torque—and not only is it a newly discovered property of light, it is also one that has never even been predicted.

(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...


TOPICS: Science
KEYWORDS: light; stringtheory
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-55 last
To: BenLurkin

The chick in the video is hot.


41 posted on 06/28/2019 9:09:01 PM PDT by BobL (I eat at McDonald's and shop at Walmart - I just don't tell anyone.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cold Heart

I knew someone would beat me.


42 posted on 06/28/2019 9:22:00 PM PDT by YogicCowboy ("I am not entirely on anyone's side, because no one is entirely on mine." - J. R. R. Tolkien)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin

43 posted on 06/28/2019 9:24:36 PM PDT by Chode (Send bachelors, and come heavily armed!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin; 6SJ7; AdmSmith; AFPhys; Arkinsaw; allmost; aristotleman; autumnraine; bajabaja; ...
Thanks BenLurkin.

· String Theory Ping List ·
Halton Arp
· Join · Bookmark · Topics · Google ·
· View or Post in 'blog · post a topic · subscribe ·


44 posted on 06/28/2019 11:47:58 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: frog in a pot

Ahem, women wear contacts. You know, to keep the “self-torque” problem discreet.


45 posted on 06/29/2019 3:18:00 AM PDT by LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget (TRUMP TRAIN !!! Get the hell out of the way if you are not on yet because we don't stop for idiots)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: Nifster

If only you could cross two posts and they came out as one...


46 posted on 06/29/2019 3:23:38 AM PDT by outofsalt (If history teaches us anything, it's that history rarely teaches anything.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: DUMBGRUNT
"Don’t cross the streams.

And never, NEVER, pee on the third rail!

47 posted on 06/29/2019 3:24:55 AM PDT by outofsalt (If history teaches us anything, it's that history rarely teaches anything.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]

To: DUMBGRUNT

Important safety tip. Thanks, Egon.


48 posted on 06/29/2019 3:43:28 AM PDT by ExGeeEye (For dark is the suede that mows like a harvest.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]

To: rx

Oliver Heaviside:
A self-taught mathematician, admitted mama’s boy who lived with his mom. He is known for taking James Clerk Maxwells 200 field equations with Josiah Willard and calling them “abominations”, discarded all but four which he transformed into vector equations, thus giving us all we know about the entire electromagnetic spectrum.

Only Nicola Tesla tried to make sense of some of the rest of Maxwell’s field equations - among them, his attempt to create a broadcast power station. And his invention of alternating current (transmitted power) - Edison only discovered direct current (stored power).

Without Maxwell, Tesla would have been just another mad scientist of the period, and Einstein would have been a postal clerk or a comedian, assuming he fled Germany in the first place.

See: The Man Who Changed Everything
The Life of James Clerk Maxwell
by Basil Mahonr

See: Oliver Heaviside
The Life, Work, and Times of an Electrical Genius of the Victorian Age
by Paul J Nahin


49 posted on 06/29/2019 3:48:47 AM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: dp0622

I’m with you - but I think the gist is that light is neat and does weird things if you play with it.


50 posted on 06/29/2019 4:06:00 AM PDT by trebb (Don't howl about illegal leeches, or Trump in general, while not donating to FR - it's hypocritical.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin

Wow! That is very interesting. Thank you for posting that article. It seems that we really don’t know squat.


51 posted on 06/29/2019 6:19:47 AM PDT by GingisK
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PIF

I remember someone in physics class singing, “Dr. Maxwell and his 200 equations made sure that I was dead, ding ding”.


52 posted on 06/29/2019 6:26:11 AM PDT by GingisK
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: outofsalt

Nice played


53 posted on 06/29/2019 7:22:08 AM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin

From the article: More recently, researchers have found that light can also be twisted, a property called angular momentum.

Hm - recently - this article is from 1940: On the current and the density of the electric charge, the energy, the linear momentum and the angular momentum of arbitrary fields
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S003189144090091X


54 posted on 06/29/2019 7:31:48 AM PDT by AdmSmith (GCTGATATGTCTATGATTACTCAT)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Nifster
;)
55 posted on 06/29/2019 7:34:46 AM PDT by outofsalt (If history teaches us anything, it's that history rarely teaches anything.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 53 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-55 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson