| The instruments are made from large, resonant cavities.
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Posted on 03/22/2005 3:40:06 PM PST by PatrickHenry
Light as we know it may be a direct result of small violations of relativity, according to new research scheduled for publication online Tuesday (March 22) in the journal Physical Review D. [Preprint is here.]
In discussing the work, physics professor Alan Kostelecky of Indiana University described light as "a shimmering of ever-present vectors in empty space" and compared it to waves propagating across a field of grain. This description is markedly different from existing theories of light, in which scientists believe space is without direction and the properties of light are a result of an underlying symmetry of nature.
Instead the report, co-authored by Kostelecky with physics professor Robert Bluhm of Colby College, discusses the possibility that light arises from the breaking of a symmetry of relativity. "Nature's beauty is more subtle than perfect symmetry," Kostelecky said. "The underlying origin of light may be another example of this subtlety."
The new results show that this description of light is a general feature of relativity violations and holds both in empty space and in the presence of gravity. "In this picture, light has a strange beauty, and its origin is tied into minuscule violations of Einstein's relativity in a profound and general way," Kostelecky said.
The report also points out that this new view of light can be tested experimentally by studying the properties of light and its interactions with matter and gravity. All these have behavior that is predicted to deviate from conventional expectations in tiny but important ways.
"This is an alternative, viable way of understanding light with potential experimental implications. That's what makes it exciting," Kostelecky said.
Possible detectable effects include asymmetries between properties of certain particles and antiparticles, and cyclic variations in their behavior as Earth rotates. The effects can be sought using various experimental equipment ranging from giant particle colliders, such as the one at Fermilab in Illinois, to "tabletop" experiments with atomic clocks or resonant cavities. A number of such experiments are now under way.
[The original article, at the end, lists the people involved in this work, and their contact information.]
Thanks, doc . . . It's an amazing place we live in!
Whatever the means by which light arises it cannot be a 'violation' of something which doesn't exist, even if it were recently thought to exist. That assumes the experiments bear out this theory.
That's what I was thinking. A poor word choice.
| The instruments are made from large, resonant cavities.
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I actually understood some of the words with more than 4 letters.
Man. I hope Physicists have as much trouble deciphering molecular biology as I has with this.
In the meantime, I will have to defer judgment to Senor Physicist and his ilk, but it will help when some experimental data are generated.
Now my head hurts.
Why wait? The advancement of humanity is at stake..
Help me! See #36.
What exactly is supposed to be violating relativity? It certainly isn't the speed of light, b/c it seems hard to think that that could be the source of light itself? Is it areas of space-time which don't have the curvature that one would expect under special relativity?
WARNING: Relativity Violations are known to the State of California to cause cancer.
What I think is fascinating is the concept of interdigitating supersymmetry and it's implications for quantum gravity. I thnk it could easily lead to a new hermaneutic with certain heuristic properties.
I could be wrong, though.
Thanks for the ping!
It wouldn't be a very stable mount for the optics; soft and mushy in some parts, too thick in others...
A ten-kilowatt laser would seem to be a bit more than a "shimmering"; let alone the output of a star.
..given the amount of "light matter" vs the amount of "dark matter" out there...Interesting article. and the "mini maglite as a relativity violator" :^)
Full Disclosure: Back in the dark ages (reference to Darkons, there, get it?), I first ran across the term hadron and misread it as "hardon".
Being an immature adolescent I couldn't stop giggling for *days*.
Naturally, this is the kind of thing that I couldn't explain to anyone at the time...
Cheers!
slow vectors down? Vectors are only a form of expression for multiple-dimensional forces and whatnot.
Now that makes it perfectly clear!
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Let's see if we can get Teddy Kennedy's skull when he croaks.