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from the this-story-arriving-slightly-later-than-expected dept.
A new paper has been published which suggests that the speed of light as described by the theory of general relativity may actually be slower than had been thought.
Franson's arguments are based on observations made of the supernova SN 1987A-it exploded in February 1987. Measurements here on Earth picked up the arrival of both photons and neutrinos from the blast but there was a problem-the arrival of the photons was later than expected, by 4.7 hours. Scientists at the time attributed it to a likelihood that the photons were actually from another source. But what if that wasn't what it was, Franson wonders, what if light slows down as it travels due to a property of photons known as vacuum polarization-where a photon splits into a positron and an electron, for a very short time before recombining back into a photon. That should create a gravitational differential, he notes, between the pair of particles, which, he theorizes, would have a tiny energy impact when they recombine-enough to cause a slight bit of a slowdown during travel. If such splitting and rejoining occurred many times with many photons on a journey of 168,000 light years, the distance between us and SN 1987A, it could easily add up to the 4.7 hour delay, he suggests.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by FatPhil on Sunday June 29 2014, @08:29AM
> If taking the "split/recombination" hypothesis into account, percents don't help: it's about 4h-and-something delay.
Is that supposed to mean anything? In 168000 years of travel, they were delayed on average 4 hours. That's 4 hours per 168000 years. That's a delay of 3 parts per billion. Whether or not you can do fractions in your head, it's 3 parts per billion. (it might not be exactly that, I did the fractions in my head) Burying your head in the sand doesn't make fractions magically disappear as apparently not being "helpful".
> Question is: how long a single "split/recombination" event takes?
Fucking short period of time.
> What do you reckon, is a single such event enough to cause a 4-hours delay?
Obviously not. Sheesh.
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