Superluminal propagation of evanescent modes as a quantum effect

Abstract

Contrary to mechanical waves, the two-slit interference experiment of single photons shows that the behavior of classical electromagnetic waves corresponds to the quantum mechanical one of single photons, which is also different from the quantum-field-theory behavior such as the creations and annihilations of photons, the vacuum fluctuations, etc. Owing to a purely quantum effect, quantum tunneling particles including tunneling photons (evanescent modes) can propagate over a spacelike interval without destroying causality. With this picture we conclude that the superluminality of evanescent modes is a quantum mechanical rather than a classical phenomenon.

Also as a Reply to the Comment by H. G. Winful [Phys. Rev. A 76, 057803 (2007)], to be published in Annalen der Physik