Weatherall, James Owen (2014) Against Dogma: On Superluminal Propagation in Classical Electromagnetism. [Preprint]
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Abstract
It is deeply entrenched dogma that relativity theory prohibits superluminal propagation. It is also experimentally well-established that under some circumstances, classical electromagnetic fields propagate through a dielectric medium with superluminal group velocities and superluminal phase velocities. But it is usually claimed that these superluminal velocities do not violate the relativistic prohibition. Here I analyze electromagnetic fields in a dielectric medium within a framework for understanding superluminal propagation recently developed by Geroch(1996, 2011) and elaborated by Earman(2014). I will argue that for some parameter values, electromagnetic fields do propagate superluminally in the Geroch-Earman sense.
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| Item Type: | Preprint | ||||||
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| Additional Information: | Forthcoming in Studies in the History and Philosophy of Modern Physics; this version corrects a serious typo in the previous version | ||||||
| Keywords: | Electromagnetism; superluminal propagation; special relativity; Gordon metric | ||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Physics > Classical Physics Specific Sciences > Physics Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory |
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| Depositing User: | James Owen Weatherall | ||||||
| Date Deposited: | 15 Nov 2014 18:07 | ||||||
| Last Modified: | 15 Nov 2014 18:07 | ||||||
| Item ID: | 11154 | ||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Physics > Classical Physics Specific Sciences > Physics Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory |
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| Date: | 2014 | ||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/11154 |
Available Versions of this Item
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Against Dogma: On Superluminal Propagation in Classical Electromagnetism. (deposited 01 Sep 2014 04:43)
- Against Dogma: On Superluminal Propagation in Classical Electromagnetism. (deposited 15 Nov 2014 18:07) [Currently Displayed]
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