Abnormal light propagation and the underdetermination of theory by evidence in astrophysics
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Publication:6143399
Abstract: We investigate the propagation of certain non-plane wave solutions to Maxwell's equations in both flat and curved spacetimes. We find that the effective signal velocity associated to such solutions need not be and that the signal need not propagate along null geodesics; indeed, more than this, we find that the information encoded in the signals associated with such solutions can be substantially non-local. Having established these results, we then turn to their conceptual-philosophical-foundational significance -- which, in brief, we take to be the following: (i) one should not assume that all electromagnetic waves generated in the cosmos are localised plane wave packages; thus, (ii) one cannot assume that signals reaching us from the cosmos arrive with a particular velocity (namely, ), and that such signals encode local information regarding their sources; therefore (iii) astrophysicists and cosmologists should be wary about making such assumptions in their inferences from obtained data -- for to do so may lead to incorrect inferences regarding the nature of our universe.
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