The superluminal motion of the peak is therefore a transitory X-waves do not violate special relativity because all superluminal X-waves have wavefronts that travel with the speed parameter c (the speed of light) thatĪppears in the corresponding wave equation. Superluminal solutions of the homogeneous wave equation and Maxwell equations are waves known as However, approximations to these waves with finite energy, called finite aperture approximations (FAA),Ĭan be produced and observed experimentally (Maiorino and Rodrigues 1999). Like the arbitrary-speed plane wave solutions, UPWs have infinite energy and therefore cannot be produced in the Speeds raging from zero to infinity, called undistorted progressive waves (UPWs) by Rodrigues and Lu (1997). It turns out that all relativistic wave equations possesses infinity families of formal solutions with arbitrary Instead a consequence of classical interference between its constituent frequency components in a region of In each case, the observed superluminal propagation is not at odds with causality, and is (2000), who produced a laser pulse in atomic cesium gas with a group velocity of Experiments showing group velocities greater than c include that of Wang et al. Phase velocity and group velocity of a wave may exceed the speed of light, but in suchĬases, no energy or information actually travels faster than c. 1952, Brillouin and Sommerfeld 1960,īorn and Wolf 1999, Landau and Lifschitz 1997), there is nothing preventing "apparent" motion faster than c (or, inįact, with negative speeds, implying arrival at a destination before leaving the origin). Information from traveling faster than the speed of light c (Lorentz et al. It should be noted that while Einstein's theory of special relativity prevents (real) mass, energy, or There is a putative class of particles dubbed tachyons which are able to travel faster than light.įaster-than-light phenomena violate the usual understanding of the "flow" of time, a state of affairs which is knownĪs the causality problem (and also called the "Shalimar Treaty"). Rodrigues, Jr.Ī superluminal phenomenon is a frame of reference traveling with a speed greater than the speed of light c. Portions of this entry contributed by Waldyr A. Superluminal - from Eric Weisstein's World of Physics
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