X-Message-Number: 14002
From: 
Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2000 16:29:44 EDT
Subject: FTL, a more palatable explanation

After looking at my last posting, I find it not too clear
for readers not acustomed to quantum strangeness.
Well, all textbooks on electromagnetism write about
the group and phase velocity of the photon, only the
second may be larger than c. These textbooks say
the phase velocity can't transport any information.

This is true if informations are not in an entangled,
hiden state and if we don't use teleportation to recover it.
When the domain of nonzero amplitude of a photon is
moved at phase velocity along the wave packet,
ordinary information can't indeed be recovered.

Now in "modern" quantum mechanics, we see
that a quantum system is as an iceberg: a small
part is above sea level and a larger part is under.
Outside what we see in a quantum system, there
is an socalled "entangled" part, this one is a copy
of all the other quantum systems previously
encountered. That "undersea" componment
may be very big. To see it (or a part of it) we
must first copy that part in a virgin system (a
fresh quantum system similar to the first) and
then erase the "above the sea" part with a
destructive interference produced by a third
quantum object. If you grind out the above
the surface part of an iceberg, the hydrostatic
push will bring out a part of the ice previously
under the surface.

I know, that explanation is at the level of the
waterfall put for potential difference in elementary
electricity, but floating ice remains simpler to
see that entangled quantum states.
(If you want the maths part, I can send
you the reference of a paper on Los Alamos
arXives -X is the grec letter chi-)

Instantaneous interstellar communications
will ask for an infrastructure similar to the one
we see in large radio telescopes in the classical
domain, this is not something a single person
can build in its garage. There are simpler,
smaller applications of the same concept
more alike the simple radio receptor anybody
can mount on a kitchen table.

Yvan Bozzonetti.

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