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arXiv:physics/0204043 · Solvay Conference on Physics

SUPERLUMINAL TUNNELING DEVICES

GÜNTER NIMTZ

Published Aug 1, 2003• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

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.

DOI
10.1142/9789812704634_0019

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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.
Tunnelling processes are thought to proceed via virtual waves due to observed superluminal (faster than light) signal speeds. Some assume such speeds must violate causality. These assumptions contradict, for instance, superluminally tunnelled music and optical tunnelling couplers applied in fiber communication. Recently tunnelling barriers were conjectured to be cavities, wherein the tunnelled output signal is not causally related with the input. The tests described here resolve that tunnelling waves are virtual, propagations are superluminal, and causality is preserved.
Superluminal signal velocity is widely assumed to confront Einstein causality and thus the Special Theory of Relativity (STR). Actually, there is only the tunneling mechanism known to permit superluminal signal velocities at present. The demonstrated negative group velocity experiments don't represent superluminal signal velocities. In those experiments only the signal's peak traveled faster than light and the signal was reshaped. In this Note we shall discuss why tunneling allows superluminal signal velocities. However, opposed to text books on STR we have shown that a superluminal signal beam does not allow the design of a time machine.
Abstract This paper considers the question of superluminal (or negative) group velocities of signals in dispersive media, as well as negative group delay times of signals passing through linear filters. It is shown that information can be transmitted only with the help of jumps in the time dependence of a function or its derivatives and, therefore, the information propagation velocity in any (including dispersive, absorbing, or amplifying) medium exactly coincides with the speed of light in vacuum. As for the group velocity of a wave packet, it is only the propagation velocity of its infinitely differentiable envelope, by means of which the transmission of information, strictly speaking, is impossible. Therefore, in regions with anomalous dispersion, the group velocity can be superluminal or negative without violating the “light limitation” of the theory of relativity or the principle of causality. Examples of situations in which superluminal or negative group velocity occurs are given.
Photonic tunnelling experiments have shown that i) the Einstein energy relation is violated, ii) the tunnelling process is non‐local, iii) the signal velocity is faster than light, i.e. superluminal, iv) the tunnelling signal is not observable, since photonic tunnelling is described by virtual photons, and v) according to the experimental results the signal velocity is infinite inside the barriers, implying that tunnelling instantaneously acts at a distance. We think these properties are not compatible with the claims of many text books on Special Relativity, see for instance Refs. [1].