On photonic tunnelling and the possibility of superluminal transport of electromagnetic energy

Abstract

Motivated by increased interest in experiments in which light appears topropagate by tunnelling at superluminal velocity, the Lorentz invariant theory proposed by Partha Ghose to explain these surprising effects is revisited. This theory is based on the Harish-Chandra formalism, which describes the relativistic dynamics of a massless spin-1 boson, like a photon. Via this formalism, the Bohmian average transport velocity of the electromagnetic energy is formulated. It is proved that, if the dielectric making the waveguide is nonabsorptive and nondispersive, this velocity can be superluminal. This result is validated in the framework of quantum electrodynamics, demonstrating that the average velocity of the photon inside the waveguide is given by the contribution of instantaneous superluminal velocities. This theory, therefore, suggests the optimal conditions for designing optical devices capable of locally transporting electromagnetic energy at superluminal velocities mitigating the signal attenuation.

Nonlocal or Possibly Superluminal Maxwell Displacement Current Observed in the Near-field of a Spherical Capacitor

“…Our findings support the results of previous independent researchers [1-5] [7-12]. They suggest that radio signal fluctuations propagate superluminally, i.e., faster than the speed of light c, in the near-field and effectively equal to the possibility of a photonic tunneling effect described by Nanni L. [9]. This behavior is attributed by the authors herein to the Coulomb longitudinal component contribution in the nearfield (i.e., within one wavelength distance) and could also altenratively be explained due to the nonlocal nature of Maxwell's displacement current predicted inside his theory of electromagnetism as analyzed by Heras J.…”