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Scientists broadly deem faster-than-light transmission of mass or information impossible, as it would violate the laws of general relativity and causality, essentially meaning that such signals would be capable of time travel and the many paradoxes that would entail.
But what if the subject itself has no mass at all? As detailed in a new paper published in the journal Nature, an international team of researchers claims it has observed “dark points” within light waves that can move faster than the speed of light, confirming a prediction dating back to the 1970s.
These “dark points” observed by the researchers are effectively small “holes” or vortices within the light wave structure itself that can move faster than their surroundings, the team posits.
“As strange as it sounds — imagine a vortex in a river overtaking the flow of water in which it exists — the phenomenon is real,” an official press release reads. “Until now, this was based on theory.”
Since the observed vortices don’t carry information or have any mass, they technically don’t violate Einstein’s laws of general relativity.
They are also darker than darkness itself. According to the paper, these vortices are “zero points” at which the light wave’s amplitude drops to zero.
“In simpler terms, they are points of complete darkness embedded within the light field,” the press release reads.
To capture the movement of these vortices in real time, the researchers used a modified high-speed electron microscope to capture moments over just three quadrillionths of a second.
By stacking hundreds of images across many experiments, the team created a timelapse, watching as the vortices clashed into each other, occasionally exceeding the speed of light itself.
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