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Originally posted by jimmy p
OK, so they injected light into a vacuum and it was frozen for a split second. Does light follow Heisenbergs uncertainty principle? i know it would be easy to detect cos you can see it, but how would they know it had stopped?
Originally posted by radagast
The title of the article was slightly misleading. While the pulses were considered frozen, the photons were not. They were trapped, slowed and reflecting back and forth, within a small zone. They have slowed light, but not stopped it (including the photons) w/o the loss of photons (as in their energy was absorbed by the sodium or rubidium atoms, then reemitted later).
Technically, no. Light is a form of energy and does not have a physical mass that can be frozen like water or other liquids.
When we say "freezing" light, we mean slowing down the movement of light particles. This is achieved by reducing the temperature of the medium through which light is traveling.
No, it cannot. According to Einstein's theory of relativity, the speed of light is constant and cannot be reduced to zero. However, it can be slowed down significantly in certain mediums, such as in a Bose-Einstein condensate, where light particles behave more like atoms.
No, it is not possible to physically capture and store light. However, we can use certain materials, such as photonic crystals, to trap light and control its movement, giving the illusion of "frozen" light.
Yes, the ability to control and manipulate the speed of light can have various practical applications, such as in optical communication, quantum computing, and medical imaging technologies. It also allows scientists to study the behavior of light and gain a better understanding of its properties.