Related papers: On the possibility of supercavitation in the quant…
We show that the interpretation of $\mathbf{D}=\varepsilon_{0} \mathbf{E}$ as vacuum polarization is consistent with quantum electrodynamics. A free electromagnetic field polarizes the vacuum but the magnetization and polarization currents…
The issue of the vacuum energy of quantum fields is briefly reviewed. It is argued that this energy is normally either much too large or much too small to account for the dark energy, However, there are a few proposals in which it would be…
The fact that quantum gravity does not admit an invariant vacuum state has far-reaching consequences for all physics. It points out that space could not be empty, and we return to the notion of an aether. Such a concept requires a preferred…
The electromagnetic vacuum is known to have energy. It has been recently argued that the quantum vacuum can possess momentum, that adds up to the momentum of matter. This ``Casimir momentum'' is closely related to the Casimir effect, in…
In quantum theory, the curved spacetime of Einstein's general theory of relativity acts as a dispersive optical medium for the propagation of light. Gravitational rainbows and birefringence replace the classical picture of light rays…
We show that the vacuum permeability and permittivity may originate from the magnetization and the polarization of continuously appearing and disappearing fermion pairs. We then show that if we simply model the propagation of the photon in…
Quantum matter in quantum space-time is discussed using general properties of energy-conservation laws. As a rather radical conclusion, it is found that standard methods of differential geometry and quantum field theory on curved space-time…
In this work we revisit the process of constructing wave equations for the scalar and vector potentials of an electromagnetic field, and show that a wave equation with an arbitrary velocity (including a velocity higher than the velocity of…
The question of whether it is possible or not to surpass the speed of light is already centennial. The special theory of relativity took the existence of a speed limit as a principle, the light postulate, which has proven to be enormously…
Quantum vorticity occurs in superfluidity, which arises from a spatial variation of the quantum phase. As such, it can occur in diverse systems over a wide range of scales, from the electroweak sector and QCD of the standard model of…
In this article, we propose a resolution to the paradox of apparent superluminal velocities for tunneling particles, by a careful treatment of temporal observables in quantum theory and through a precise application of the duality between…
The possibility is discussed of superluminal motion of non-tachyonic (i.e. moving with the instantaneous speed v<c) bodies within general relativity. It is shown that in some occasions quantum field theory apparently prohibits such motion,…
It recently has been demonstrated that signals conveyed by evanescent modes can travel faster than light. In this report some special features of signals are introduced and investigated, for instance the fundamental property that signals…
Momentum transfer between matter and electromagnetic field is analyzed. The related equations of motion and conservation laws are derived using relativistic formalism. Their correspondence to various, at first sight self-contradicting,…
Several approaches to quantum gravity suggest that Lorentz invariance will be broken at high energy. This can lead to modified dispersion relations for wave propagation, which can be concretely realized in effective field theories where the…
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…
Truncating quantum field theories to a dominant mode offers a non-perturbative approach to their solution. We consider here the interaction of charged scalar matter with a single mode of the electromagnetic field. The implied breaking of…
Special theory of relativity has been formulated in a vacuum momentum-energy representation which is equivalent to Einstein special relativity and predicts just the same results as it. Although in this sense such a formulation would be at…
Many theoretical and experimental investigations have presented a conclusion that evanescent electromagnetic modes can superluminally propagate. However, in this paper, we show that the average energy velocity of evanescent modes inside a…
We propose a quantum model for the vacuum filled of virtual particle pairs. The main originality of this model is to define a density and a life-time of the virtual particles. Compared to the usual QED $(p,E)$ framework, we add here the…