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Reversing and Accelerating the Speed of Light
Source: Ames Laboratory Posted: July 21, 2006
Reversing And Accelerating The Speed Of Light
Physicist Costas Soukoulis and his research group at the U.S. Department of Energys Ames Laboratory on the Iowa State University campus are having the time of their lives making light travel backwards at negative speeds that appear faster than the speed of light. That, folks, is a mind-boggling 186,000 miles per second the speed at which electromagnetic waves can move in a vacuum. And making light seem to move faster than that and in reverse is what Soukoulis, who is also an ISU Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said is like rewriting electromagnetism. He predicted, Snells law on the refraction of light is going to be different; a number of other laws will be different.
 Faster than the speed of light? This still image from a video simulation shows a pulse of light entering a fictitious, ideal metamaterial that does not disperse, or spread out, the light pulse into individual wave components with different velocities. Inside the metamaterial, the velocities of both the light pulse and the individual wave components are negative. This condition makes the light move 'backwards,' and the peak of the light pulse leave the metamaterial on the right-hand side before it enters on the left. Consequently, energy is transferred through the material faster than the vacuum speed of light, which is unphysical and violates physics laws, such as relativity and causality. (Image courtesy of Ames Laboratory)
Read the rest of this story on my blog:
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