Researchers illuminate the hidden properties of light
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Story highlights
- "We thought it was impossible for a photon to send you halfway round," scientist Paul Eastham says
- Light, it seems, doesn't necessarily conform to the rules we thought it did
(CNN)When it comes to understanding light, it turns out we're more in the dark than we thought.
Researchers
in Ireland have reported that they discovered a "new form" of light,
and, in a press release, say that their discovery "will impact our
understanding of the fundamental nature of light." The discovery was published in the scientific journal "Science Advances."
The
recent discovery by physicists at Ireland's Trinity College Dublin
could alter our established thinking of how a key aspect of light -- its
angular momentum -- is understood.
Angular
momentum is a measurement of how something rotates around its own axis,
which light is known to do. Essentially, as photons -- tiny particles
of light -- travel through space, they twist and turn around their axes.
Previously
it was thought that light's angular momentum was a constant, but the
team at Trinity discovered that under certain conditions, it only spins
around its axis half as much as it should.
Light, it seems, doesn't necessarily conform to the rules we thought it did. This could mean big things, the researchers say.
"It's
a bit like a tiny, light merry-go-round at a playground. It goes round
and round, which is more or less they way people understood light to
work. We thought it was impossible for a photon to send you halfway
round, but it turns out, it's not," lead researcher Paul Eastham told
CNN.
"What I think is so exciting
about this result is that even this fundamental property of light, that
physicists have always thought was fixed, can be changed," he said.
"But
this science is in a very early stage -- the next stage is to work out
the consequences, how this could be used in everyday life," Eastham
said.
Eastham suggested that the
discovery could have implications for telecommunications and privacy.
The nature of these newly found photons are by nature harder to crack,
meaning they could deliver data without such a high threat of a third
party snooping. It could be used in fiber-optic cables to improve speed
and security.
'Breakthrough' for physics
The
research was the product of collaboration between the university's
School of Physics and its Center for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures
and Nanodevices (CRANN).
Director of CRANN Stefano Sanvito called the work "fundamental scientific research that challenges our understanding of light.
"The
topic of light has always been one of interest to physicists, while
also being documented as one of the areas of physics that is best
understood. This discovery is a breakthrough for the world of physics
and science alike."
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