Superluminal communication
From Wikinfo
Superluminal communication is the term used to describe the hypothetical process by which one might send information at faster-than-light (FTL) speeds. Scientific investigation has thus far produced no empirical evidence for superluminal communication.
Some theories and experiments include:
- Group velocity > c experiments
- evanescent wave coupling
- Tachyons
- Quantum non-locality
According to the currently accepted theory three out of those four phenomena do not produce superluminal communication, although they may give that appearance under some conditions. Only tachyons (which are generally thought to be theoretically impossible) produce truly superluminal communication.
If wormholes are possible, then ordinary subluminal methods of communication could be set through them to achieve superluminal transmission speeds. Considering the immense energy that current theories suggest would be required to open a wormhole large enough to pass spacecraft through it may be that only atomic-scale wormholes would be practical to build, limiting their use solely to information transmission.
See also: Ansible, Faster-than-light, light, Speed of light, Quantum teleportation
References
- Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Superluminal_communication" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superluminal_communication, used under the GNU Free Documentation License
