Related papers: Is vacuum dispersive?
The dependence of macroscopic radiation pressure on the velocity of the object being pushed is commonly attributed to the Doppler effect. This need not be the case, and here we highlight velocity dependent radiation pressure terms that have…
We report on a very simple and inexpensive method for determining the speed of an electrical wave in a transmission line. The method consists of analyzing the roundtrip time for ethernet packets between two computers. It involves minimal…
We calculate the ``seeing'' effect on distant sources due to a gravitational wave background. We derive the limit in strain and energy density of the gravitational wave based on the limit of detectability of this effect with the present day…
We consider a rigid body colliding with a continuum of particles. We assume that the body is moving at a velocity close to an equilibrium velocity V_{\infty} and that the particles colliding with the body reflect diffusely, that is,…
The effect of a random phase screen on laser beam wander in a turbulent atmosphere is studied theoretically. The method of photon distribution function is used to describe the photon kinetics of both weak and strong turbulence. By bringing…
We predict that the speed of a diffusion front is modified by tidal forces. This effect is small in astrophysical situations, but could be significant - indeed tunably so - in "gravitational analogues" such as gradient-index lenses.…
The evolution of acoustic waves can be evaluated in two ways: either as a temporal, or a spatial propagation. Propagating in space provides the considerable advantage of being able to handle dispersion and propagation across interfaces with…
The influence of quantum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field on the propagation of a polarized light wave in a nonlinear dielectric is investigated. It is shown that in some cases, the fluctuations couple to the optical nonlinearities…
We theoretically and computationally investigate the role that the spatial spread of atoms plays in the transmission and reflection of weak light from atom arrays. In particular, we investigate whether coherent wave functions for the atoms'…
Theories proposing a varying speed of light have recently been widely promoted under the claim that they offer an alternative way of solving the standard cosmological problems. Recent observational hints that the fine structure constant may…
We study cumulative scattering effects on wave front propagation in time dependent randomly layered media. It is well known that the wave front has a deterministic characterization in time independent media, aside from a small random shift…
Light propagation through a normal medium is determined not only by the real part of the refractive index but also by its imaginary part, which represents optical gain and loss. Therefore, two media with different gain and loss landscapes…
A localized charged particle oscillating near a reflecting boundary is considered as a model for non-cancellation of vacuum fluctuations. Although the mean velocity of the particle is sinusoidal, the velocity variance produced by vacuum…
It has been known for a long time that vacuum polarization in QED leads to a superluminal low-frequency phase velocity for light propagating in curved spacetime. Assuming the validity of the Kramers-Kronig dispersion relation, this would…
It is supposed that at very small scales a quantum field is an infinite homogeneous quantum computer. On a quantum computer the information cannot propagate faster than $c=a/\tau$, $a$ and $\tau$ being the minimum space and time distances…
Light-pulse atom interferometers serve as tools for high-precision metrology and are targeting measurements of relativistic effects. This development is facilitated by extended interrogation times and large-momentum-transfer techniques…
Einstein's theory of relativity establishes the speed of light in vacuum, c, as a fundamental constant. However, the speed of light pulses can be altered significantly in dispersive materials. While significant control can be exerted over…
We present a rigorous study of quantum diffusion of a relativistic particle subjected to a time-dependent random potential with $\delta$ correlation in time. We find that in the asymptotic time limit the particle wave packet spreads…
A procedure to calculate the radiation spectrum emitted by an arbitrarily prepared Dirac wave packet is developed. It is based on the Dirac charge current and classical electrodynamic theory. Apart from giving absolute intensity values, it…
Wave dispersion in a pulsar plasma is discussed emphasizing the relevance of different inertial frames, notably the plasma rest frame ${\cal K}$ and the pulsar frame ${\cal K}'$ in which the plasma is streaming with speed $\beta_{\rm s}$.…