Light, Vol. 1: Waves, Photons, Atoms

Günter Nimtz, Horst Aichmann

Abstract Zero tunneling time and thereby a faster than light traversal velocity was calculated nearly a hundred years ago and has been observed recently. We report about experimental results and estimations, which confirm the zero time tunneling for elastic as well as for electromagnetic and Schrödinger waves. Zero time tunneling was first observed with microwaves 1992 (H. Aichmann and G. Nimtz, Found. Phys., vol. 44, p. 678, 2014; A. Enders and G. Nimtz, J. Phys. I, vol. 2, p. 169, 1992). In 2008, zero time was also observed for tunneling electrons (P. Eckle, A. N. Pfeiffer, C. Cirelli, et al., Science, vol. 322, p. 1525, 2008). Presumably, this effect took place with atoms quite recently (R. Ramos, D. Spierings, I. Racicot, and A. M. Steinberg, Nature, vol. 583, p. 529, 2020). The Einstein relation E 2 = (ħk)2 c 2 is not satisfied in the tunneling process, since the wave number k is imaginary (E is the total energy, ħ the Planck constant, and c the vacuum velocity of light), Zero time tunneling is described by virtual photons (A. Stahlhofen and G. Nimtz, Europhys. Lett., vol. 76, p. 189, 2006). The tunneling process itself violates the Special Theory of Relativity. Remarkably, Brillouin conjectured that wave mechanics is valid for all waves independent of their field (L. Brillouin, Wave Propagation in Periodic Structures, Chap. VIII, New York, Dover Publications, 1953).

George William Series

Joseph Simmons, Mark J. Guttmann

Volodymyr Krasnoholovets

The two opposite concepts - multiphoton and effective photon - readily describing the photoelectric effect under strong irradiation in the case that the energy of the incident light is essentially smaller than the ionisation potential of gas atoms and the work function of the metal are treated. Based on the submicroscopic construction of quantum mechanics developed in the previous papers by the author [Phys. Essays vol. 6, 554 (1993); vol. 10, 407 (1997)] the analysis of the reasons of the two concepts discrepancies is led. Taking into account the main hypothesis of those works, i.e., that the electron is an extended object that is not point-like, the study of the interaction between the electron and a photon flux is carried out in detail. A comparison with numerous experiments is performed.

Arbind Kumar Sah

An atom laser is a coherent state of propagating atoms. They are created out of a Bose Einstein Condensation (BEC) of atoms which are output coupled using various techniques. An optical laser or conventional laser generates a coherent beam of light waves where as an atom laser produces a coherent beam of matter waves. An atom laser will have a major impact on the fields of atom optics, atom lithography and precision measurements.The Himalayan Physics Vol. 4, No. 4, 2013 Page: 99-101 Uploaded date: 12/23/2013