JERUSALEM, March 26 (Xinhua) -- An international team of researchers has for the first time directly measured tiny "dark points" within light waves, showing they shift at speeds that appear faster than light, the Israel Institute of Technology said Thursday.
Published in Nature, the study confirms a prediction from the 1970s that the dark points, known as optical vortices or phase singularities, can appear to move faster than light.
The vortices are tiny regions where the light's intensity drops to zero, forming patterns similar to whirlpools in water or swirls in coffee.
The speed of these points does not violate Einstein's relativity. Relativity only forbids mass, energy, or information from traveling faster than light, none of which these points carry.
The breakthrough was achieved using a unique electron microscope system that combines lasers with advanced optics to deliver unprecedented detail.
The researchers said the discovery reveals universal wave behaviors in nature and provides a new tool to study nanoscale phenomena. The findings could impact microscopy, nanostructure optics, superconductivity, and quantum information technologies, they said. ■
