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Photon acceleration in vacuum

if i understand their conclusion (not that slim of a chance), they are saying that if a group of photons are sent along a path, the trailing edge will move closer to the front edge while the front edge moves closer to the back edge, leading to a bunching up of the photons in the middle.

i dont know, but to me that sounds like the photons are exerting a gravity like force (not actually gravity i suspect, just something simular) to other photons. over several light years a beam could end up as a pulse.

Chirping waveforms in dispersive media is not new. Diddling photon frequency with relativistic particle collision and accelerating particles with intense laser fields are not new either.

"Photon acceleration" is a curious term. One certainly cannot make them go faster, mostly,

http://arXiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0107091
http://arXiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0010055
Phys. Lett. B236 354 (1990)
Phys. Lett. B250 133 (1990)
J Phys A26 2037 (1993)
Scharnhorst effect

and I don't see how changing their direction is pertinent. Sufficiently intense electric fields (atomic numbers near the Fine Structure Constant reciprocal) will spark the vacuum with spontaneous pair formation. Sufficiently intense magentic fields create vacuum dichroism and facile inteconversion of photons and matter.

10^16 V/cm in a photon field is a rather a lot.

I was totally unimpressed too. Seems like the authors just wanted to publish something: Anything.

The paper noted by the Count is rather interesting. It is speculative base on an analogy with processes seen in plasma, etc. It does make a kind of predicition though. They indicate that the backgroud radiation field, in free space, might be expected to change the direction and frequency (red shift) of light passing through it. There are other causes for these sorts of effects, e.g. turbidity of the intestellar medium, Faraday effect, etc., etc. So it is not clear it this suggested effect, if it is real, could be sorted out by observational astronomers.

Even if there is no new new "photon acceleration" effect and this is shown, there would be implications for QED. It is a predicted consequence of QED and if it does not hold - well you know what we do with such hypotheses! (Not that - I mean the other thing!)

If what they have to say is in fact correct, it cerainly suggest some directions for astronomical research. On the other hand, as Morgan says, it may all just be about publication. All I can say is that many of us have put out the odd LPU (Least Publishable Unit) from time to time.

Dr. R.

this got me to wondering about something.

the paper indicated that light redshifts over a distance in vacuum, and they are saying that the galazies fartherest away are accelerating their speed away. Is it possible that the redshifting of light due to this radiation is what makes the galaxies speed seem to be increaseing?

i dont know, but it makes me wonder about it.

Hi dehammer,

Probably not. The effect that these people are talking about depends on the radiation field that the photons are interacting with as they move along. The Hubble red shift is, I think, far too uniform for that.

By the wayHubble himself cautioned against too ready an acceptence of red shift as evidence of universal expansion. For other versions of cosmology have a look at

http://www.spaceandmotion.com/Cosmology-Big-Bang-Theory.htm

There are some links on this page worth following.

My thinking on the subject is more along the lines of "how transparent is the vacuum of intergalactic space?" Everything from grains of dust, wisps of hydrogen, stray magnetic fields and on and on add a kind of turbidity to the otherwise pristine vacuum. On the one hand, this turbidity is a pain as it obscures the view. On the other side, it can tell us about the structure of space between here and there. Getting a "look" at the empty spots between the galaxies is quite a challange. What this paper suggest is that we might be able to distinguish optically the "quantum foam" that John Wheeler was talking about in in the 60s.

For more moore on quantum foam check out:

http://universe-review.ca/R01-07-quantumfoam.htm

Now to keep all of this in proper perspective have a look at:

http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/q/quantum_foam.asp

Dr. R.

thanks, makes sense.

dr rocket:

Thank you for the link on cosmology. I list a little:

"10. DOPPLER RED SHIFT?
Inconsistencies regarding the current interpretation of observed red shift present many problems to Big Bang Theory. Many of those have to do with the distant massive bodies that are called quasars.
As presently utilized, red shift data results in the perception of extremely great masses and brilliances of quasars. Variations in the level of radiation from these sources (27,42) require their size to be extremely small and their densities to be extremely great. These extreme characteristics suggest that the present interpretation of red shift data as Doppler shift doesn't tell the whole story about the speed and distance of remote massive bodies in space.

Red shift data as presently used also shows quasars to be "clumped" at great distances (great relative velocities). According to Big Bang Theory that would require the formation of large numbers of quasars too soon after the Big Bang. That interpretation of red shift data also results in the anomaly of quasars at various distances, and thus of various ages, that are observed to have similar electromagnetic spectrums.
But perhaps even in greater conflict with Big Bang Theory, the clumping of distant quasars in all directions would appear to put us at the center of the universe. That situation, known as the Copernican Problem, is in direct conflict with the basic Big Bang Theory tenet of smoothness; that is, isotropy and homogeneity.
Dependence on Doppler red shift for the determination of velocity and distance also results in the perception of an unreasonably large number of distant quasars having associated superluminal flares. (32,43) Some simple mathematics can show that, if the perceived distance of those quasars was less, fewer of such flares would be indicated. (Also, mathematical investigation of the velocity relationships between quasars perceived to be at great distances and their perceived superluminal flares, has provided unintelligible results.)"

I was aware of some continuing disagreements with the specifics of the Big Bang ideas but every time I get into it I feel that the theory of Hubble on speed of the expanding universe seems to be to be at the root of the issue.

Note my post on the "not quite science forum".

There should be a means to test the alleged doppler effect on light here at home. I know that the light we get from stars is a lot different from the light we get reflected from planets or non-star but it is also true that astronomers get a lot of data about the clouds and such in the spectrums of the reflected light from planets. My thought is that due to our orbital relationship to nearby planets we could simulate an object traveling toward us when we are overtaking Venus and leaving us when we have actually pass by Venus. This could also be tested on the reflected light of Mars and from Jupiter. With the slower orbiting objects like Mars and Jupiter we would read the result of our catching up with them as the reverse of their approaching us.

My thought is that the spectrograph may shed some "light" on whether there are red shifts involved with the light we check for any form of shifting as we see in the distant stars. They talk about the chemical spectrograph found but I found no comment on any speed shifting of the spectrums. I am not versed in spectrograph technology and that ignorance may doom my question at the outset?

jjw