A New Form of Light

A New Form of Light

Paige Giffault

Light is everywhere and we have been studying light and ways to measure and identify it for centuries. There are many different forms of light that have been identified, consisting of radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet light, x rays, and gamma rays. All these forms of light follow specific rules relating to angular and linear momentum.

However, recently, Irish scientists claimed to have discovered a new form a light that does not confine to these rules. For all known forms of light listed above, the angular momentum, which is how much light rotates. Until now, this measurement has always been an integer multiple of Planck's constant, which is "a physical constant that sets the scale of quantum effects". For this new form of light, this scientists have discovered that its angular momentum is not a whole number.

In an attempt to look for way to improve optical communication and transmit light, these scientists passed light through crystals. This resulted in beams of light with a twisted structure; the beams had an angular momentum of a half number. To further test the shocking results, a device was created that measured the angular momentum of the beam. Again, the measurement was discovered to be one half of Planck's constant, defying the fixed rules of physics for light.

This is a huge breakthrough in science and physics and broadens our understanding of light. Hopefully, this could lead to improvements and advancements in security and internet connections. Like any new discovery, research still needs to be done and many more experiments must be conducted to further validate and verify the accuracy of these results.