The idea that light has momentum is not new, but the exact nature of how light interacts with matter has remained a mystery for close to 150 years. New research from UBC's Okanagan campus, recently published in Nature Communications, may have uncovered the key to one of the darkest secrets of light.
[...] To measure these extremely weak interactions between light photons, the team constructed a special mirror fitted with acoustic sensors and heat shielding to keep interference and background noise to a minimum. They then shot laser pulses at the mirror and used the sound sensors to detect elastic waves as they moved across the surface of the mirror, like watching ripples on a pond.
"We can't directly measure photon momentum, so our approach was to detect its effect on a mirror by 'listening' to the elastic waves that traveled through it," says [study co-author and UBC Okanagan engineering professor Kenneth] Chau. "We were able to trace the features of those waves back to the momentum residing in the light pulse itself, which opens the door to finally defining and modelling how light momentum exists inside materials."
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-05706-3
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 21 2018, @10:10PM (5 children)
Oh, never mind...
(Score: 2) by RandomFactor on Tuesday August 21 2018, @10:19PM (2 children)
Beam me up?
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 2) by BsAtHome on Tuesday August 21 2018, @10:26PM
It is easier to disassemble than to reassemble. I can almost imagine the shockwaves from the fotonic momentum when thinking about getting reassembled from the beam.
(Score: 4, Funny) by takyon on Tuesday August 21 2018, @11:41PM
EmDrive hovercars with light momentum secret sauce
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday August 21 2018, @11:17PM
Crisis averted.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday August 22 2018, @05:56PM
Electric Universe
A theory so powerful it actually reverses the flow of time which is how it's proponents are able to work backwards from their conclusions.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 21 2018, @10:23PM (1 child)
As a non-physicist, I figured light(photons) had momentum, otherwise lightsails for spacecraft propulsion would not be viable.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 21 2018, @10:36PM
Nothing you learn about physics as a non physicist is ever correct. Its always that you were just told a simplification once you find out enough to discover the flaw. Theres like 80 layers of this and in the end nobody knows the answer since its too hard to calculate it.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 21 2018, @11:40PM
"Ooh, man, I can hear the photons". "Cool, now take a toke of this one and you'll be able to feel the light waves". "Groovy, let's publish."