Light| Light |
In General > s.a. [electromagnetism]; causality [light
cone]; physical constants [speed].
* History: 1637 – Descartes,
particles; 1678 – Huygens, waves, that slow down in refraction; 1704 – Newton,
particles that speed up in refraction (it was assumed that light waves would
be longitudinal, and did not exploan polarization); 1801 – Young, waves,
from interference (and introduced idea of transverse waves); 1850 – Foucault,
waves, from slowdown in refraction; 1905 – Planck/Einstein, photons;
{# Grimaldi, Herschel}.
* Speed: The first idea
that it might not be infinite was with Ole Rømer, who measured it in
1676.
* Rainbow: Can't form in the middle of the day because the Sun has
to be at 40o or lower above the horizon in order for its light to refract
at the right angles.
@ General references, I: in Lightman 86, 137 ff; Sobel 87; Perkowitz ThSc(93)mar
[beyond the blue]; Lynch & Livingston
95; Silverman 98.
@ General references, II: Montwill & Breslin 08.
@ History: Zajonc 93; Perkowitz 96 [and art]; Park 97; Shea AJP(98)
[Rømer's experiment].
@ Nature: Newton PTRS(1672), reprinted AJP(93)
[colors]; Young PTRS(1802)
[wave theory].
Classical Effects and Properties > s.a. aharonov-bohm; diffraction; optics;
phase; polarization; radiation.
* Talbot effect: The
repeated self-imaging of a diffraction grating, reported in 1836 by Henry Fox
Talbot, rediscovered by Lord Rayleigh in 1881; Explained by near-field interference
[@ news pw(01)jun].
* Optical black holes:
Trap light inside vortices of fluid that whirl at speeds close to the speed
of light
in the medium (possibly real slow); According
to
Leonhardt, light brought to a standstill in a gas should produce
a singularity analogous to the event horizon of a black hole, and emit
pairs
of photons similar to Hawking radiation.
@ Coherence: Picozzi & Haelterman PRL(02) [hidden coherence].
@ Orbital angular momentum: Allen et al PRA(92); Leach et al PRL(02);
Padgett et al PT(04)may;
Tiwari qp/06; > s.a. doppler effect.
@ Related topics: NS(90)sep1, p40-44 [rainbows];
Harris CP(95)
[interference and
fluctuations, speckle]; Sanz & Miret-Artes qp/07 [Talbot
effect in quantum mechanics, ito Bohmian mechanics]; Götte et al PRS(07)
[dragging by a rotating
medium].
Anomalous Propagation > s.a. dispersion; photon; wave
phenomena.
* Scharnhorst effect:
Superluminal propagation in matter obtained by suppressing vacuum modes (> see casimir).
* Slowdown: 1997, 17
m/s in BEC; 2000, 1 mph in BEC; 2001, Light effectively slowed down to vg =
0, its information stored in collective spin states of a dilute Rb gas, with
the possibility of reading it out later; However, most light packets lose
their shape when their speed is decreased, which limits their applicability
in telecommunications; 2004, optical solitons made to move at 10–6 c.
* Standstill: 2002, Achieved in crystals, can be useful for high-density
information storage for quantum computing.
@ Superluminal: Valentini PLA(89);
news Nat(90)mar;
Scharnhorst
PLB(90);
Barton PLB(90);
Wang et al Nat(00)jul;
Jackson et al PRA(01)phy/00;
Shore gq/03-in,
ht/07 [from
quantum field theory effects]; Chen et al a0807 [control].
@ Slowdown: Vestergaard Hau et al Nat(99)feb
[17 m/s in BEC]; Fiurasek et al PRA(02)qp/00;
Phillips et al PRL(01)
+ pn(01)jan;
news pn(07)may.
@ Standstill: Vestergaard Hau SA(01)jul; Bajcsy et al Nat(03)qp [storage
and release of pulses in
Rb].
Other Propagation Effects > s.a. photon; Reflection; Refraction.
@ Various materials: Neutze & Stedman PRA(98)
[accelerating media]; Ward CP(99)
[photonic materials]; Michinel et al PRE(02)
+ pn(02)jul
["light
droplets"];
Ramakrishna & Armour AJP(03)cm/02 [absorbing
media]; Li & Sun qp/05 [3+1-level
atoms].
@ Inhomogeneous: Piwnicki
IJMPA(02) [geometrical].
@ Multiple scattering: Lagendijk & van Tiggelen PRP(96).
In Gravitation and Cosmology > s.a. doubly
special relativity; observational
cosmology [birefringence].
@ Propagation in curved spacetime: Gibbons PLB(93)
[cosmic strings]; Manzano & Montemayor
PRD(97)
[rotating mass]; Kopeikin et al CQG(06)gq [in
multipole fields]; de Felice et al ApJ(06)ap [Solar
System]; Brouzakis et al ap/07,
Marra et al PRD(07)-a0708 [random
swiss-cheese model]; > s.a. FRW
spacetimes.
@ Gravitational interactions: Faraoni & Dumse GRG(99)gq/98; > s.a.
tests of general relativity with light, phenomenology.
@ In cosmology: Ellis et al CQG(98) [lensing and caustic effects]; Mustapha
et al CQG(98) [distance-redshift].
@ Effective metric: Novello & Salim PRD(01)
[non-linear dielectric].
@ Optical black holes: Leonhardt & Piwnicki PRA(99)phy,
PRL(00)cm/99 + pn(00)jan;
Visser PRL(00)gq;
Brevik & Halnes PRD(02)gq/01;
Leonhardt Nat(02)phy/01, gq/01-in;
Royston & Gass gq/02 [with
radial flow]; De Lorenci et al PRD(03).
Quantum Aspects > s.a. Chemical
Potential; localization; photon; QED;
quantum gravity effects; radiation;
Wave-Particle Duality.
@ Interactions: Sørensen &
Sørensen a0711 [with ensemble of identical atoms].
Applications > s.a. earth [atmospheric
optics]; optical
technology [including lasers].
@ Colors: Weinberg GRG(76);
Pease AJP(80)RL;
Rossotti 88; Perkowitz ThSc(91)may;
Gage 93, 99; Nassau 01; Kentsis phy/05 [Goethe's
theory].
@ Art: Rossing & Chiaverina 99 [II, introductory physics for visual
arts];
Taft & Mayer 00 [painting].
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Send feedback and suggestions to bombelli at olemiss.edu – Modified
5 jul 2008