Speed of light² inverse to vacuum energy density

[kmarinas86]

http://www.ldolphin.org/setterfield/vacuum.html<br /><br /><font color="yellow">RECONSIDERING LIGHT-SPEED<br /><br />It is at this point in the discussion that a consideration of light-speed becomes important. It has already been mentioned that an increase in vacuum energy density will result in an increase in the electrical permittivity and the magnetic permeability of space, since they are energy related. Since light-speed is inversely linked to both these properties, if the energy density of the vacuum increases, light-speed will decrease uniformly throughout the cosmos. Indeed, in 1990 Scharnhorst [48] and Barton [20] demonstrated that a lessening of the energy density of a vacuum would produce a higher velocity for light. This is explicable in terms of the QED approach. The virtual particles that make up the "seething vacuum" can absorb a photon of light and then re-emit it when they annihilate. This process, while fast, takes a finite time. The lower the energy density of the vacuum, the fewer virtual particles will be in the path of light photons in transit. As a consequence, the fewer absorptions and re-emissions which take place over a given distance, the faster light travels over that distance [49, 50].<br /><br />However, the converse is also true. The higher the energy density of the vacuum, the more virtual particles will interact with the light photons in a given distance, and so the slower light will travel. Similarly, when light enters a transparent medium such as glass, similar absorptions and re-emissions occur, but this time it is the atoms in the glass that absorb and re-emit the light photons. This is why light slows as it travels through a denser medium. Indeed, the more closely packed the atoms, the slower light will travel as a greater number of interactions occur in a given distance. In a recent illustration of this light-speed was reduced to 17 metres/second as it passed th</font>

 

[Saiph]

very nice exerpt.<br /><br />However I don't think the concept is as fresh and new as the passage makes it out to be. The general principle is standard fare in my physics classes (even the "classical" ones). <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p align="center"><font color="#c0c0c0"><br /></font></p><p align="center"><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">----</font></em></font><font color="#666699">SaiphMOD@gmail.com </font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">-------------------</font></em></font></p><p><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">"This is my Timey Wimey Detector.  Goes "bing" when there's stuff.  It also fries eggs at 30 paces, wether you want it to or not actually.  I've learned to stay away from hens: It's not pretty when they blow" -- </font></em></font><font size="1" color="#999999">The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[vogon13]

Would the speed of a ray of light passing between plates exhibiting casimir effect be affected?<br /><br />(think I phrazed that the way I want it) <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>

 

[kmarinas86]

I don't know, but given even energy density throughout its path, I would say that its speed would be constant. Saiph probably know better by how much it should slow down. Slow down, i think... probably not speeding up.

 

[Saiph]

actually this came up in the Tachyon thread, and oddly enough in some reading I've very recently done (last week or so). Anybody ever notice that odd trend? That the first time you hear a word or new concept, it gets used or repeated in short order?<br /><br />The casimir effect is created by the two nearby plates effectively reducing the number of possible energy states between them, compared to the number allowed outside of them. By doing so, there is less vacuum energy (which is composed of those possible energy states, to be simple) between the plates than outside.<br /><br />This causes the outside energy to press the plates together, thus creating the "force" that is the casimir effect.<br /><br />Now, this reduction in vacuum energy can be interpreted as a reduction in the creation of virtual particle pairs (equivalent approach basically), and these pairs absorb and emit light in a very fast, but finite time period. Now, the same thing can be said with the energy states, but it's more apparent with the virtual particle pair picture.<br /><br />This process is what causes the speed of light to have it's speed limit (provides permeability and permiitivity). With the energy states, it's a matter of altering the permitivity and permeabilty fields (wave vs particle pictures here).<br /><br />Anyway, by reducing the number of virtual particles, light can travel easier, and faster. The effect was quoted as a few hundred mph increase (basically nill, and insignificant on astronomical scales and uncertainties). <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p align="center"><font color="#c0c0c0"><br /></font></p><p align="center"><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">----</font></em></font><font color="#666699">SaiphMOD@gmail.com </font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">-------------------</font></em></font></p><p><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">"This is my Timey Wimey Detector.  Goes "bing" when there's stuff.  It also fries eggs at 30 paces, wether you want it to or not actually.  I've learned to stay away from hens: It's not pretty when they blow" -- </font></em></font><font size="1" color="#999999">The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[kmarinas86]

Suppose you could make the Permittivity and Permeability of this vacuum energy such that there are many orders of manigtude of reduction. If and where it happens, could the Speed of light through this medium be a significant fraction higher than what we measure here on Earth?