I haven't read the paper
but the summaries on popular news sites suggest that the "slowing down" is just the lights wavefunction taking a longer optical path due to being diffracted and reappearing on it's original path due to constructive interference.
I could be utterly wrong though.
(, Fri 23 Jan 2015, 16:28, Share, Reply)
That's passing through a medium other than a vacuum
You can actually get it down to 38 mph by passing it through cold sodium atoms.
Once passed the medium it speeds up again to the constant for whatever medium it's in.
The point is that these guys are claiming to slow it down permanently.
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Cerebus Sticky! Sticky! Stick! Stick!, Fri 23 Jan 2015, 16:33,
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Where did I mention media?
I'm talking about optical path lengths here.
(, Fri 23 Jan 2015, 16:38, Share, Reply)
er... how else are you refracting the light?
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Cerebus Sticky! Sticky! Stick! Stick!, Fri 23 Jan 2015, 16:58,
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If I'm reading it right it's a diffraction effect
they have a ring shaped slot, the photon (wavelike) goes through the entire slot and creates a diffraction pattern on the other side. This interferes so the maximum probability of finding it is still on its original path.
When you measure it it acts like a particle so it is only in one place and that place is probably on the line it was going down initially, but because it has had to go through the bullseye ring it has actually covered more distance than it would if it had gone in a straight line, so it seems to be going slower.
But as I said, I haven't read the paper yet so I could be wrong. This is just what I remember from my nearly 20 year old uni quantum mechanics and optics.
Got to run now. I will see if I can get a chance to actually read it over the weekend.
(, Fri 23 Jan 2015, 17:02, Share, Reply)
