'We have broken speed of light' Can this possibly be true?

Question

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/08/16/scispeed116.xml


If this is true, it changes EVERYTHING. Even though photons have no mass, a technology based on this could enable instantaneous communication with deep space probes.

Answer 1

Somehow I don't think the Yahoo! Answers community is going to have much luck second-guessing a quantum physics research team. But yes, it's possible that it could have an impact on communication over massively long distances (but only if the effect is corroborated, can be easily replicated and can be usefully exploited).

But it won't exactly stop us walking down to the local shop for a pint of milk.

I wonder if the reported result is linked to the "Scroedinger's kittens" thought experiment.

Answer 2

I agree, if true it changes everything. But I believe it's a safe bet that it is not. Tunneling and quantum entanglement have been getting a lot of interest for years now due to what appears to be superluminal properties. But every experiment demonstrating FTL linkage has had a hitch of some kind that prevents FTL communication. Remember, FTL communication enables communication between the future and the past, and this violates causality, leading to paradoxes.

And the one thing in that article that really raised my suspicion, even though it is a minor thing, is the quotation "instantaneous". I don't think any physicists would use that word because it is not possible to know "instantaneous". I have heard and would expect to hear something like "...at least 3 times c", or "at least 10 times c", since there are limits to test equipment for determining such things, but "instantaneous" makes me very suspicious....

Answer 3

It's from a credible source. Possibly. However, remember when the stem cell research guy was found to be a liar? That could be happening again. Nobody knows.

If it is true, then it changes a lot of things, but not everything. We already have satellite communications at the speed of light. And the furthest probe isn't even nearly a light year away, so we really have no need to communicate with it that fast, because all it's discovering is space dust.

Answer 4

In my opinion the article speaks of teleportation, not travelling faster than the speed of light. The two concepts are not the same. Similar experiments in teleportation have been successful since 2002.

In June 2002 the Ph.D. project of Dr. Warwick Bowen led by Dr. Ping Koy Lam, Prof. Hans Bachor and Dr. Timothy Ralph of the Australian National University achieved (quantum) teleportation of a laser beam.[5]

It was a successful quantum teleportation experiment involving the use of 'entangled' photons. A target photon was successfully 'scanned', its properties 'copied' onto a transition photon, and finally the photon was recreated at another location of arbitrary distance, proving in essence the theorems proposed by Einstein to explain his 'strange action at a distance'.

Teams of scientists from the University of Innsbruck and the U. S. National Institute of Standards and Technology worked independently to teleport ions of calcium and beryllium, respectively, in 2004. The two groups used different techniques to achieve similar results under the same basic protocol.[1]

In October 2006, Eugene Polzik and his team at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark conducted a teleportation experiment involving a microscopic atomic object containing trillions of atoms. They teleported the information a distance of half a metre (1.6 feet). "For the first time, it involves teleportation between light and matter, two different objects." In order to achieve this, Dr. Eugene Polzik and his team shined a strong laser beam into a cloud of room-temperature cesium atoms that shared the same directional spin. As Scientific American reports: "The laser became entangled with the collective spin of the cloud, meaning that the quantum states of laser and gas shared the same amplitude but had opposite phases. The goal was to transfer, or teleport, the quantum state of a second light beam onto the cloud." (It should be noted that this process is more akin to duplication than actual teleportation, i.e. using this method on a human being would result in the formation of a doppelganger and not a magical Star Trek-like movement of matter). To achieve this goal, Polzik and other scientists added a second weaker laser pulse and split the two beams into separate branches in order to measure the difference between the quantum phases; through that measurement the scientists were then able to transfer the information of the spin state of the weak laser to the combination of the cesium atoms and the strong laser, without disturbing the quantum entanglement between the laser and the cesium. Umm, so the short of it is: one small step for a cesium atom, but one giant leap for quantum computing research and the advancement of teleportation theory.

Answer 5

wow, thats insane- if it incredibly is replicated by different physicists it can be a clean era in technological understanding in spite of the shown fact that it could in all probability be eons before the flow of something weighing somewhat a selection micro grams of mass in spite of the shown fact that its additionally not all that new, all of us recognize that electrons a technique or the different "teleport" from ingredient a to show b with in each and each orbital, in spite of the shown fact that the distances traveled is small- the only new element that has come out of this can be the three ft margin yet because of the fact it broke the particular relativity regulation, it could mean that if this replaced into one hundred% real it could mean a limiteless quantity of unfastened mass and potential for guy type, it particularly is that if used for the main appropriate motives and not for inner maximum benefit in spite of the shown fact that I particularly have my doubts too, we are taking approximately accelerating a mass much less particle, a photon of sunshine pass the fee of sunshine, an fulfillment definite, yet considering the fact that its mass much less the stress had to develop up it could be somewhat small

Answer 6

It doesn´t seem likely that they have succeded. We´ll see if they and others are able to repeat their experiment. Until someone has the article is not true. It is just a claim for now. But if it is it would change everything.

Answer 7

I doubt it...this isn't the first team of researchers that has claimed to have broken the speed of light. Previous claims have either turned out to be bogus or were misreported by the scientifically-illiterate media.

Answer 8

from reading that article it says still that they havnt done that yet atleast with an audience of highly trained scientists but i doubt it otherwise because at this point in time with our technology it is impossible

Answer 9

Yes, breaking the speed of light is indeed possible, however, it requires a flux capacitor.

Answer 10

"Tunneling" is a quantum effect and has previously only been observed over very short distances.
I'm interested, even a little excited, ....but sceptical.