An invisibility device should guide light around an object as if nothing were there, regardless of where the light comes from. Ideal invisibility devices are impossible, owing to the wave nature of ...light. This study develops a general recipe for the design of media that create perfect invisibility within the accuracy of geometrical optics. The imperfections of invisibility can be made arbitrarily small to hide objects that are much larger than the wavelength. With the use of modern metamaterials, practical demonstrations of such devices may be possible. The method developed here can also be applied to escape detection by other electromagnetic waves or sound.
Covering some of the most exciting trends in quantum optics - quantum entanglement, teleportation, and levitation - this textbook is ideal for advanced undergraduate and graduate students. The book ...journeys through the vast field of quantum optics following a single theme: light in media. A wide range of subjects are covered, from the force of the quantum vacuum to astrophysics, from quantum measurements to black holes. Ideas are explained in detail and formulated so that students with little prior knowledge of the subject can follow them. Each chapter ends with several short questions followed by a more detailed homework problem, designed to test the reader and show how the ideas discussed can be applied. Solutions to homework problems are available at www.cambridge.org/9780521869782.
ABSTRACT
Dark energy is one of the greatest scientific mysteries of today. The idea that dark energy originates from quantum vacuum fluctuations has circulated since the late ’60s, but theoretical ...estimations of vacuum energy have disagreed with the measured value by many orders of magnitude, until recently. Lifshitz theory applied to cosmology has produced the correct order of magnitude for dark energy. Furthermore, the theory is based on well-established and experimentally well-tested grounds in atomic, molecular and optical physics. In this paper, we confront Lifshitz cosmology with astronomical data. We find that the dark–energy dynamics predicted by the theory is able to resolve the Hubble tension, the discrepancy between the observed and predicted Hubble constant within the standard cosmological model. The theory is consistent with supernovae data, Baryon Acoustic Oscillations and the Cosmic Microwave Background. Our findings indicate that Lifshitz cosmology is a serious candidate for explaining dark energy.
The question of how much momentum light carries in media has been debated for over a century. Two rivalling theories, one from 1908 by Hermann Minkowski and the other from 1909 by Max Abraham, ...predict the exact opposite when light enters an optical material: a pulling force in Minkowski's case and a pushing force in Abraham's. Most experimental tests have agreed with Minkowski's theory, but here we report the first quantitative experimental evidence for Abraham's pushing pressure of light. Our results matter in optofluidics and optomechanics, and wherever light exerts mechanical pressure.
The physics at the event horizon resembles the behavior of waves in moving media. Horizons are formed where the local speed of the medium exceeds the wave velocity. We used ultrashort pulses in ...microstructured optical fibers to demonstrate the formation of an artificial event horizon in optics. We observed a classical optical effect: the blue-shifting of light at a white-hole horizon. We also showed by theoretical calculations that such a system is capable of probing the quantum effects of horizons, in particular Hawking radiation.
Hawking's 1974 prediction that black holes radiate and evaporate has been hinting at a hidden connection between general relativity, quantum mechanics and thermodynamics. Recently, laboratory ...analogues of the event horizon have reached the level where tests of Hawking's idea are possible. In this paper we show how to go beyond Hawking's theory in such laboratory analogues in a way that is experimentally testable.
Astrophysics has given empirical evidence for the cosmological constant that accelerates the expansion of the universe. Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics have proven experimentally that the ...quantum vacuum exerts forces – the van der Waals and Casimir forces – on neutral matter. It has long been conjectured (Zel’dovich, 1968) that the two empirical facts, the cosmological constant and the Casimir force, have a common theoretical explanation, but all attempts of deriving both from a unified theory in quantitative detail have not been successful so far. In AMO Physics, Lifshitz theory has been the standard theoretical tool for describing the measured forces of the quantum vacuum. This paper develops a version of Lifshitz theory that also accounts for the electromagnetic contribution to the cosmological constant. Assuming that the other fields of the Standard Model behave similarly, gives a possible quantum-optical explanation for what has been called dark energy.
•Previous attempts to solve the enigma of the cosmological constant have failed.•This paper deduces the correct order of magnitude from the physics of the quantum vacuum.•A dynamical cosmological constant is predicted.•No new fields are introduced, but rather new concepts in fields as old as quantum electromagnetism.
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