Self-torque of light can torque off

Scientific articles that have significant problems. Not necessarily junk science; more like junk conclusions.
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Blogio
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Self-torque of light can torque off

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Post by Blogio » Fri May 01, 2020 10:58 am

The department of Snappy Graphics and Not Asking Too Many Questions brings us our latest physics "discovery", the self torque of light.

See here, here, here, and here.

I offer no excuses for the puff pieces on this topic. Physics generates so few discoveries these days, I'm sure they're starved for excitement. But let's set the record straight: This is NOT a fundamental property of light, it's a collective interaction of light with matter.

At no point will the propagandists actually show the experimental setup or the output of the machine. The rule is that if they don't show it in the original propaganda, it's not cool enough to show, ever.

It's probably a nice effect, all by itself, but based on the sheer breathlessness of the reporters, I suspect it has a long history, and is well known in some other form not generally seen by others. I think what we have here is a bunch of optical engineers thinking they can study fundamental physics.

Also, there's no real torque, no real angular momentum, and the entire lexicon of fundamental physics terms (torque, angular momentum, quantum, nanoscale, black hole, etc.) ... is unwarranted. It's some sort of non-linear, collective effect where the light self-steers but must preserve linear momentum. This whole thing started based on helical phase fronts, which is not a fundamental phenomenon. At least someone is asking a few questions.

The shocking part of this whole affair is that the remnant of the physics community is not asking questions. Perhaps they know it should be ignored. It's bad university politics for one scamming department to interfere in the scams of another department. I think I see the problem here... they're linking it to quantum cryptography. Well.... say no more. :roll:

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