Darkness can travel faster than light
Dark points within light waves, known as optical phase singularities, can travel faster than the speed of light, confirming a 50-year-old theoretical prediction. Researchers at Technion used a modified ultrafast transmission electron microscope to observe these singularities in hexagonal boron nitride with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. Although the dark points exceed light speed, this does not violate relativity because they are massless and carry no energy or information.
- ▪Optical phase singularities are points of complete darkness in light waves where amplitude drops to zero.
- ▪The singularities were observed in 2D hexagonal boron nitride using free-electron Ramsay imaging with 20 nm and 3 fs resolution.
- ▪When singularities with opposite charges meet, they annihilate and accelerate to superluminal speeds just before annihilation.
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"Dark points: A conceptual illustration of a glowing pool with blue and orange vortices, representing the measured dark points alongside the honeycomb atomic structure of the hBN material. (Courtesy: T Bucher and colleagues)"A conceptual illustration of a glowing pool with blue and orange vortices, representing the measured dark points alongside the honeycomb atomic structure of the hBN material studied. (Courtesy: T Bucher and colleagues) Dark points within light waves can travel faster than the waves themselves. This finding, which is based on new measurements by researchers at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, confirms a 50-year-old prediction and could help push atomic-scale imaging past its current limits.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Physics World.
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