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Abstract <p>Empirical verification of the Scharnhorst effect remains a paramount challenge in fundamental physics, primarily due to the exceedingly small magnitude of the predicted superluminal velocity shift. This work demonstrates a viable measurement protocol based on multipass Casimir-Lloyd interferometry, utilizing a nanoscale vacuum cavity embedded within a high-Q cryogenic whispering-gallery microresonator. Rather than attempting direct time-of-flight measurements, the scheme detects the cumulative phase anomaly accumulated by photons traversing the modified vacuum region. Through dual-stage resonant enhancement—combining a quality factor of 5 × 10⁹ with a Fabry–Perot finesse of 5050—the proposed configuration generates a detectable phase shift of 9.2 × 10⁻¹⁹ rad at λ = 5 μm. While a single-unit setup requires approximately 130 years of integration to achieve unity signal-to-noise ratio, scalability analysis indicates that employing resonator arrays (N = 100) alongside 20 dB squeezed light reduces this duration to roughly 1.5 years. To mitigate systematic uncertainties, a differential TE/TM polarization measurement is implemented, exploiting the exclusive presence of the effect in transverse electric modes. These findings suggest that contemporary quantum metrology and nanofabrication techniques may finally enable the experimental validation of superluminal propagation in bounded quantum vacuum.</p>

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Observation of the Scharnhorst effect via multipass Casimir–Lloyd interferometry

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年4月2日

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  • Mikhail S. Anisimov,
  • Kirill O. Sinyukov

摘要

Abstract

Empirical verification of the Scharnhorst effect remains a paramount challenge in fundamental physics, primarily due to the exceedingly small magnitude of the predicted superluminal velocity shift. This work demonstrates a viable measurement protocol based on multipass Casimir-Lloyd interferometry, utilizing a nanoscale vacuum cavity embedded within a high-Q cryogenic whispering-gallery microresonator. Rather than attempting direct time-of-flight measurements, the scheme detects the cumulative phase anomaly accumulated by photons traversing the modified vacuum region. Through dual-stage resonant enhancement—combining a quality factor of 5 × 10⁹ with a Fabry–Perot finesse of 5050—the proposed configuration generates a detectable phase shift of 9.2 × 10⁻¹⁹ rad at λ = 5 μm. While a single-unit setup requires approximately 130 years of integration to achieve unity signal-to-noise ratio, scalability analysis indicates that employing resonator arrays (N = 100) alongside 20 dB squeezed light reduces this duration to roughly 1.5 years. To mitigate systematic uncertainties, a differential TE/TM polarization measurement is implemented, exploiting the exclusive presence of the effect in transverse electric modes. These findings suggest that contemporary quantum metrology and nanofabrication techniques may finally enable the experimental validation of superluminal propagation in bounded quantum vacuum.