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Annalen der Physik

“Superluminal” phenomena can be attributed to instantaneous transfer of excitations in the near field zone

M.E. Perel'man

Published Dec 1, 2005• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract The observation of superluminal transmission of photons created discussions of their reality and significance. To analyze the possibility of such phenomena in general, the most general method is employed based on the covariant theory of dispersion relations. It is shown that superluminal phenomena can only be realized as tunneling of excitations within the near field zone. On this basis, the main experimental data can be described as sequential processes of single photon scattering. Their temporal distribution is estimated by taking into account the scattering time. Thus, the difference is explained between the advance of the superluminal part of the light pulse (i.e., the transition time of single photons) and the signal velocity of the macroscopic pulse of light.

DOI
10.1002/andp.200551711-1204

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arXiv:1304.3155•Apr 10, 2013•3 citations
Abstract The observation of superluminal transmission of photons created discussions of their reality and significance. To analyze the possibility of such phenomena in general, the most general method is employed based on the covariant theory of dispersion relations. It is shown that superluminal phenomena can only be realized as tunneling of excitations within the near field zone. On this basis, the main experimental data can be described as sequential processes of single photon scattering. Their temporal distribution is estimated by taking into account the scattering time. Thus, the difference is explained between the advance of the superluminal part of the light pulse (i.e., the transition time of single photons) and the signal velocity of the macroscopic pulse of light.
It is shown that the transferring of light signal faster-than-c can take place exclusively as the instantaneous quantum tunneling. Its extent (space size of instanton) must be inversely relative to lack of energy till nearest stable or resonant state. ''Superluminality'' leads to nonlocality ''in small'', in a near field zone, and can be described by 4-vector AμA_μAμ​, the E\mathbf{E}E and H\mathbf{H}H fields remain local. These assertions are proven, independently, in the frameworks of general field theory and by the theory of time duration of scattering, with taking into account the entropy growing. They are correlated with peculiarities of tunneling and frustrated total reflection. The results correspond to the Wigner formulation of causality: ''The scattered wave cannot escape a scatterer before the initial wave reaches it'' and are conformed to experimental data on superluminal transferring.
An explanation for superluminal phenomena based on wave-particle duality of photons is suggested. A single photon may be regarded as a wave packet, whose spatial extension is its coherence volume. As a photon propagates as a wave train in vacuum, its velocity is just the speed of light. When it tunnels through a barrier as a particle, its wave function collapses and it will travel faster than light. Superluminal motion can occur only within the coherence length and the time constrained by uncertainty principle. A massive particle cannot be superluminal during the tunneling process. So superluminality does not violate causality. As for the superluminal and negative group velocities in anomalously dispersive medium, they are merely reshaping effect of the pulse, and they will become subluminal at large distances. A couple of experiments are proposed to test the superluminal phenomena.
It is argued that the photon tunneling process originates in an inability to localize photons completely in space. Seen in this perspective, optical tunneling experiments might allow one to obtain rich information on the photon localizability problem, that until now has been studied mainly theoretically. A rigorous analysis of the electrodynamics in the near-field zone of matter enables us to identify the transverse vector field and subsequently to use it to construct a first-quantized space–time theory for the photon birth process and to determine the source region of the photon. The present theory shows that optical tunneling never appears outside the photon’s source domain, and it is shown that an apparently superluminal response occurs as a consequence of the lack of complete photon localizability. No fundamental velocity is attached to this effect, which stems solely from quantum nonlocality. Starting from the Riemann–Silberstein vectors, which permit the introduction of a space–time description of a free polychromatic photon’s so-called energy wave function, a theoretical investigation of the near-field scattering of a single photon from a mesoscopic or microscopic (molecular, atomic) particle is presented. Inasmuch as the photon tunneling phenomenon appears to be an indispensable part of the near-field scattering process, it might be possible to establish a rigorous first-quantized theory of one-photon tunneling between macroscopic molecular solids by adding the tunneling contributions from the individual molecules.
Experiments at Berkeley and elsewhere which show that the process of tunneling is apparently superluminal will be reviewed. Conflicting theories for the tunneling time will be compared with experiment. The tunneling particle in the Berkeley experiments was the photon. The measurement of the tunneling time utilized a two-photon light source (spontaneous parametric down-conversion), a Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer, and a coincidence counter of photon pairs. The tunnel barrier consisted of a photonic-bandgap medium excited at midgap. We find that the peak of a tunneling single-photon wave packet appeared on the far side of the barrier 1.47 ± 0.21 fs earlier than the peak of a wave packet which traveled an equal distance in air. Group velocities which exceed c can also occur in transparent media with inverted atomic populations. Tachyon-like excitations, i.e., collective normal modes of atoms coupled to electromagnetic radiation which possess tachyon-like dispersion relations, occur in these media. However, relativistic causality is not violated by any of these superluminal phenomena.
Photonic tunneling permits superluminal signal transmission. The principle of causality is not violated but the time duration between cause and effect can be shortened compared with an interaction exchange with velocity of light. This outstanding property can be applied to speed-up photonic signal modulation and transmission as well as to improve micro-electronic devices. Superluminal photonic signal transmission have been presented at microwave and infrared frequencies already. Presumably superluminal photonic and electronic devices can become reality having in mind the experimental evidence of the universal tunneling time of photons and of electrons.
Since 1992 experimental evidence of superluminal (faster than light, FTL) signals are causing much excitement in the physical community and in the media. Superluminal signal velocity and zero time tunneling was first observed in an analog tunneling experiment with microwaves. Recently, the conjectured zero time of electron was claimed to be observed in ionizing helium. The FTL signal velocity was reproduced with infrared light and with various tunneling barriers in several laboratories worldwide. Remarkable, it was shown that the tunneling time is a universal quantity for elastic and for electromagnetic fields. Many theoretical physicists predicted this FTL nature of the tunneling process. However, even with this background many members of the physics community did not accept the superluminal signal velocity interpretation of the experimental results and they also ignored the universal tunneling time. The predicted and measured zero tunneling time was taken as a fantastic nonsense. A brief explanation of the misleading theoretical approaches against FTL signals due to the tunneling process is presented eventually.