Related papers: Foucault's method in new settings
We revisit a consistency test for the speed of light variability, using the latest cosmological observations. This exercise can serve as a new diagnostics for the standard cosmological model and distinguish between the minimal varying speed…
Time delays between multiple images of lensed sources can probe the geometry of the universe. We propose a novel method based on free-form modelling of gravitational lenses to estimate time-delay distances and, in turn, cosmological…
A laser diffraction experiment was conducted to study light propagation in air. The experiment is easy to reproduce and it is based on simple optical principles. Two optical sensors (segmented photo-diodes) are used for measuring the…
Measurements are reported of the yield and spectrum of fluorescence, excited by a 28.5 GeV electron beam, in air at a range of pressures of interest to ultra-high energy cosmic ray detectors. The wavelength range was 300 - 420 nm. System…
We propose to "boost" the speed of communication and computation by immersing the computing environment into a medium whose index of refraction is smaller than one, thereby trespassing the speed-of-light barrier.
Although special relativity limits the actual velocity of a particle to $c$, the velocity of light, the observed velocity need not be the same as the actual velocity as the observer is only aware of the position of a particle at the time in…
Absorption and gain processes are fundamental to any light-matter interaction and a precise measurement of these parameters is important for various scientific and technological applications. Quantum probes, specifically the squeezed states…
This paper documents the winning entry at the CVPR2017 vehicle velocity estimation challenge. Velocity estimation is an emerging task in autonomous driving which has not yet been thoroughly explored. The goal is to estimate the relative…
Astronomers measure cosmic distances to objects beyond our own galaxy using standard candles: objects of known intrinsic brightness, whose apparent brightnesses in the sky are then taken as an indication of their distances from the…
The constancy of the speed of light (the maximum velocity of interaction) is the second postulate of Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity. Currently, there is no correct theoretical proof of this constancy in all inertial frames…
We have measured motional heating rates of trapped atomic ions, a factor that can influence multi-ion quantum logic gate fidelities. Two simplified techniques were developed for this purpose: one relies on Raman sideband detection…
We show that it is possible to estimate the shape of an object by measuring only the fluctuations of a probing field, allowing us to expose the object to a minimal light intensity. This scheme, based on noise measurements through homodyne…
We show that the conclusion of a recent experiment [arXiv:0912.3934] that claims to have discovered that "the speed of light seems to depend on the motion of the observer" is wrong.
Limb darkening laws are convenient parameterizations of the stellar intensity center-to-limb variation, and their use is ubiquitous in eclipse and transit modeling. But they are not "laws" in any sense -- they are simple approximations of…
We propose a precise ellipsometric method for the investigation of coherent light with a small ellipticity. The main feature of this method is the use of compensators with phase delays providing the maximum accuracy of measurements for the…
As we approach the 125th anniversary of the Michelson-Morley experiment in 2012, we review experiments that test the isotropy of the speed of light. Previous measurements are categorized into one-way (single-trip) and two-way (round-trip…
This paper presents an all-fiber telecom-range optical gyroscope employing a spontaneous parametric down conversion crystal to produce ultra-low intensity thermal light by tracing-out one of the heralded photons. The prototype exhibits a…
Concepts of high precision studies of the one-way speed of light anisotropy are discussed. The high energy particle beam allows measurement of a one-way speed of light anisotropy (SOLA) via analysis of the beam momentum variation with…
Traditionally, the angular momentum of light is calculated for "bullet-like" electromagnetic wave packets, although in actual optical experiments "pencil-like" beams of light are more commonly used. The fact that a wave packet is bounded…
The aim of colour constancy is to discount the effect of the scene illumination from the image colours and restore the colours of the objects as captured under a 'white' illuminant. For the majority of colour constancy methods, the first…