Abstract
Any charged particle moving faster than light through a medium emits Cherenkov radiation. We show that charged particles moving faster than light through the vacuum emit Cherenkov radiation. How can a particle move faster than light? The weak speed of a charged particle can exceed the speed of light. By definition, the weak velocity is where is the velocity operator and and are, respectively, the states of a particle before and after a velocity measurement. We discuss the consistency of weak values and show that superluminal weak speed is consistent with relativistic causality.
- Received 15 June 2001
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.66.042102
©2002 American Physical Society