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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: 2) by c0lo on Monday June 30 2014, @11:08AM
I specifically looked for the wavelength of those "late to the party" photons, but couldn't find the info (not saying that it's not there, but I couldn't find it at a cursory look).
Anyway, based on the advanced hypothesis (split/recombination), my guess is they are considering gamma radiation (X-rays aren't energetic enough to create particle/antiparticle pairs). If so, it seems the "classic" plain-old-matter polarization doesn't have to much a role to play (it is not the electrons in the element's shell to contribute to the polarization) - as such, the classical measurements of mu/eps in close-to-electro/magneto-static conditions would help.
But... a couple of years ago some german scientists [www.ill.eu] got quite excited about the possibility to create gamma-ray lenses. It seems the hypothesised mechanisms is still electron/positron pair creation, although not from vacuum but by the interaction with the strong field inside nuclei [www.mpg.de]. Looks like the heavier the nucleus, the better are the chances.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford