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Theoretical And Experimental Studies Of The Emission Of Electromagnetic Radiation By Superluminal Polarization Currents, Andrea Caroline Schmidt-Zweifel

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Maxwell’s equations establish that patterns of electric charges and currents can be animated to travel faster than the speed of light in vacuo, c, and that these superluminal distribution patterns emit tightly focused packets of electromagnetic radiation that are fundamentally different from the emissions by previously known sources -- on Earth and in the Universe. This dissertation introduces a practical faster-than-light emitter: The superluminal polarization current antenna. Such devices use a polarization current that travels faster than c to give rise to electromagnetic radiation, a technique known as the vacuum Čerenkov effect. In what is to follow, the theoretical and …