🚀 go-pugleaf

Einsteinians know their criminal cult is eternal but still too many
references to superluminal signals make them nervous; in such cases
they stop singing "Divine Einstein" and fill Einstein zombie world
with the scornful "pfffft hahahahahaha":

http://arstechnica.com/journals/science.ars/2007/10/16/how-a-superluminal-experiment-should-be-conducted
How a superluminal experiment should be conducted
By Chris Lee | Published: October 16, 2007 - 03:30PM CT
"A couple of months ago we reported on an arXiv paper that reported
superluminal pulse propagation [Nimtz' paper]. The paper was such a
steaming pile of science that our report amounted to something along
the lines of "pfffft hahahahahaha." The reason was that the
researchers did not give a detailed explanation of their experimental
setup, did not present any data other than a rather vague "about 2ps,"
and didn't try to make a distinction between the group velocity and
the phase velocity. To examine these sorts of experiments, let me give
you a short introduction to the propagation of light. Light has two
speeds associated with it: phase velocity, and group velocity. When
Einstein formulated special relativity, he did it using the
empirically observed evidence that the phase velocity of light was
constant for all observers. The conclusion was that the phase velocity
of light in vacuum was the fastest speed possible. Today, I am pleased
to be able to give an example of superluminal experiments done right.
In work published in Physical Review A, a group of researchers from
NIST and the Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics...."

So zombies should learn by rote that in 1905 Einstein postulated the
PHASE VELOCITY was constant, not the group velocity. If he had said
the GROUP VELOCITY was constant - then, OK, superluminal signals would
refute relativity - but fortunately Einstein did not say so. Zombies
should also know that only superluminal experiments published in in
Physical Review A matter - superluminal experiments published anywhere
else deserve, by definition, "pfffft hahahahahaha". Finally, zombies
should never ask the following question: Can superluminal signals
refute relativity as implied in textbook problems like the following
one:

http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic193296.files/chap11.pdf
pp. 41-42:
11.6. Train in a tunnel **
"A train and a tunnel both have proper lengths L. The train moves
toward the tunnel at speed v. A bomb is located at the front of the
train. The bomb is designed to explode when the front of the train
passes the far end of the tunnel. A deactivation sensor is located at
the back of the train. When the back of the train passes the near end
of the tunnel, the sensor tells the bomb to disarm itself. Does the
bomb explode?"
p. 57: "Therefore, the far end of the tunnel passes the front of the
train before the near end passes the back, so the bomb explodes. We
can, however, also look at things in the frame of the tunnel (see Fig.
11.53). Here the tunnel has length L, and the train is length-
contracted down to L/gamma. Therefore, the deactivation device gets
triggered before the front of the train passes the far end of the
tunnel, so you might think that the bomb does not explode. We appear
to have a paradox. The resolution to this paradox is that the
deactivation device cannot instantaneously tell the bomb to deactivate
itself. It takes a finite time for the signal to travel the length of
the train from the sensor to the bomb. And it turns out that this
transmission time makes it impossible for the deactivation signal to
get to the bomb before the bomb gets to the far end of the tunnel, no
matter how fast the train is moving. Let's show this. The signal has
the best chance of winning this "race" if it has speed c....."

Pentcho Valev