Related papers: On the possibility of supercavitation in the quant…
As generally known, the speed of propagation of light in solid state bodies can be different from the speed of light in vacuum. That the mere presence of electric or magnetic fields in the vacuum can suffice to influence the speed of light,…
It is pointed out that if gravitational interactions among ordinary bodies propagate in extra space-time dimensions the velocity of gravitational waves in vacuum could be different from the speed of light $c$.
We propose a way to encode acceleration directly into quantum fields, establishing a new class of fields. Accelerated quantum fields, as we have named them, have some very interesting properties. The most important is that they provide a…
QED vacua under the influence of external conditions (background fields, finite temperature, boundary conditions) can be considered as dispersive media whose complex behaviour can no longer be described in terms of a single universal vacuum…
Vacuum polarisation in QED in a background gravitational field induces interactions which effectively violate the strong equivalence principle and affect the propagation of light. In the low frequency limit, Drummond and Hathrell have shown…
Photons propagating in curved spacetime may, depending on their direction and polarisation, have velocities exceeding the ``speed of light'' c. This phenomenon arises through vacuum polarisation in QED and is a tidal gravitational effect…
The extreme electromagnetic or gravitational fields associated with some astrophysical objects can give rise to macroscopic effects arising from the physics of the quantum vacuum. Therefore, these objects are incredible laboratories for…
These lectures deal with selected aspects of quantum field theory in curved spacetime including the following topics: (1) Quantization of fields on a curved background, particle creation by gravitational fields, particle creation in an…
We consider the problem of propagation of photons in the quantum theory of non-relativistic matter coupled to electromagnetic radiation, which is, presently, the only consistent quantum theory of matter and radiation. Assuming that the…
We want to study the influence of the quantum vacuum on the light propagation. At first, by working in the standard linear quantum theory of the electromagnetic fields, it is shown that the electric permittivity and the magnetic…
The influence of the noncommutativity on the average speed of a relativistic electron interacting with a uniform magnetic field within the minimum evolution time is investigated. We find that it is possible for the wave packet of the…
The existence of irreducible field fluctuations in vacuum is an important prediction of quantum theory. These fluctuations have many observable consequences, like the Casimir effect which is now measured with good accuracy and agreement…
The problem of relativity of motion in quantum vacuum is addressed by considering a cavity moving in vacuum in a monodimensional space. The cavity is an open system which emits photons when it oscillates in vacuum. Qualitatively new effects…
The quantum vacuum constitutes a fascinating medium of study, in particular since near-future laser facilities will be able to probe the nonlinear nature of this vacuum. There has been a large number of proposed tests of the low-energy,…
While Quantum Gravity remains elusive and Quantum Field Theory retains the interpretational difficulties of Quantum Mechanics, we have introduced an alternate approach to the unification of particles, fields, space and time, suggesting that…
The effect of static electromagnetic fields on the propagation of light is analyzed in the context of a particular class of scalar-tensor gravitational theories. It is found that for appropriate field configurations and light polarization,…
A variant of electrodynamics is constructed in which faster-than-light motions are possible.
A recently proposed gedankenexperiment involving the (gravitational or electromagnetic) interaction between two objects--one placed in a state of quantum superposition of two locations--seems to allow for faster-than-light communication.…
The effective action for QED in curved spacetime includes equivalence principle violating interactions between the electromagnetic field and the spacetime curvature. These interactions admit the possibility of superluminal yet causal photon…
Some physical effects of time averaged quantum electric field fluctuations are discussed. The one loop radiative correction to potential scattering are approximately derived from simple arguments which invoke vacuum electric field…