No Arabic abstract
Many theoretical and experimental investigations have presented a conclusion that evanescent electromagnetic modes can superluminally propagate. However, in this paper, we show that the average energy velocity of evanescent modes inside a cut-off waveguide is always less than or equal to the velocity of light in vacuum, while the instantaneous energy velocity can be superluminal, which does not violate causality according to quantum field theory: the fact that a particle can propagate over a space-like interval does preserve causality provided that here a measurement performed at one point cannot affect another measurement at a point separated from the first with a space-like interval.
Contrary to mechanical waves, the two-slit interference experiment of single photons shows that the behavior of classical electromagnetic waves corresponds to the quantum mechanical one of single photons, which is also different from the quantum-field-theory behavior such as the creations and annihilations of photons, the vacuum fluctuations, etc. Owing to a purely quantum effect, quantum tunneling particles including tunneling photons (evanescent modes) can propagate over a spacelike interval without destroying causality. With this picture we conclude that the superluminality of evanescent modes is a quantum mechanical rather than a classical phenomenon.
Applying the fact that guided photons inside a waveguide can be treated as massive particles, one can study the superluminality of evanescent modes via showing that a massive particle can propagate over a spacelike interval, which corresponds to quantum tunneling effects. For this purpose, we treat the particle as a quantum reference frame, while attach an inertia observer to a classical reference frame, and then quantize the formulae for the Lorentz transformation between the quantum and classical reference frames, from which we obtain the conclusion that, owing to the Heisenbergs uncertainty relation, the particle can propagate over a spacelike interval.
We propose a two-color scheme of atom guide and 1D optical lattice using evanescent light fields of different transverse modes. The optical waveguide carries a red-detuned light and a blue-detuned light, with both modes far from resonance. The atom guide and 1D optical lattice potentials can be transformed to each other by using a Mach-Zehnder interferometer to accurately control mode transformation. This might provide a new approach to realize flexible transition between the guiding and trapping states of atoms.
We consider a model of a unstable state defined by the truncated Breit-Wigner energy density distribution function. An analytical form of the survival amplitude $a(t)$ of the state considered is found. Our attention is focused on the late time properties of $a(t)$ and on effects generated by the non--exponential behavior of this amplitude in the late time region: In 1957 Khalfin proved that this amplitude tends to zero as $t$ goes to the infinity more slowly than any exponential function of $t$. This effect can be described using a time-dependent decay rate $gamma(t)$ and then the Khalfin result means that this $gamma(t)$ is not a constant but at late times it tends to zero as $t$ goes to the infinity. It appears that the energy $E(t)$ of the unstable state behaves similarly: It tends to the minimal energy $E_{min}$ of the system as $t to infty$. Within the model considered we find two first leading time dependent elements of late time asymptotic expansions of $E(t)$ and $gamma (t)$. We discuss also possible implications of such a late time asymptotic properties of $E(t)$ and $gamma (t)$ and cases where these properties may manifest themselves.
The evanescent waves named as EW1, EW2, EW3 are described in 3 respective experimental setups: 1) total internal reflection; 2) scattering on an inhomogeneous planar target; and 3) propagation along a waveguide. Some interactions are considered between EW2 and the environment. The latter may include a beam of probing particles and/or the screen on which the EW2 are formed. Some new properties of EW are described, such as complex energy eigenvalues in case of a movable screen, and evanescence exchange between the interacting objects. This reveals the connection between evanescent states and the Gamow states of the studied system. The 4-momentum exchange between EW2 and the probe is highly selective and may collapse the superposition of studied EW2- eigenstates to a single EW-eigenstate of the probing particle. Possible imprints of EW2 in the far field are briefly discussed and a simple experiment is suggested for their observation. .