When can Light GO Faster than Light? the Tunneling Time and its Sub-Femtosecond Measurement via Quantum Interference.

Dai-Yu Xu, Towe Wang, Xun Xue

Martin Schultze, Matthias Uiberacker, Thorsten Uphues +15 more

This report presents the first real-time observation of electron tunnelling and multi-electron dynamics in atoms exposed to intense light. The observed sub-femtosecond ionization steps provide a powerful means of probing the transient population of short-lived valence electronic states in excited atoms offering direct, time-domain access to a wide range of multi-electron dynamics unfolding on an attosecond to femtosecond time scale. The results of pump-probe measurements are in good agreement with the predictions of the theory Keldysh put forward four decades ago.

Dmitry A. Kalashnikov, Elizaveta Melik-Gaykazyan, А. А. Калачев +3 more

We report the new method for the measurement of the phase-relaxation time T2of a medium with femtosecond time resolution. The method is based on the effect of quantum interference of entangled photons and does not require the actual use of a femtosecond light source. The method provides the practical and cost-efficient alternative to existing methods of ultrafast time-resolved spectroscopy [1].

C. Urbina, D. Esteve, John M. Martinis +4 more

Anthony Maccini

Theoretically, if electrons in the orbit of an element’s atoms were to orbit faster than light, there might be emission of Cerenkov radiation, and that element propagates into the past. As it seems practically impossible to make electrons orbit the atoms in an element faster than light, one considers tunneling. It is known that electrons that tunnel, according to Gunter Nimtz, propagate faster than light. If one can achieve continuous tunneling of electrons through a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID), faster than light might achieve this. But the properties of tunneling electrons become virtual particles, non-local, faster than light, and invisible would be magnified in a SQUID.

Tore Wessel-Berg