The Scharnhorst effect is a hypothetical phenomenon in which light signals travel faster than c between two closely spaced conducting plates. It was predicted by Klaus Scharnhorst of the Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany, and Gabriel Barton of the University of Sussex in Brighton, England. They showed using quantum electrodynamics that the effective refractive index, at low frequencies, in the space between the plates was less than 1 (which by itself does not imply superluminal signaling). They were not able to show that the wavefront velocity exceeds c (which would imply superluminal signaling) but argued that it is plausible.
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“The pleasure of one’s effect on other people still exists in age—what’s called making a hit. But the hit is much rarer and made of different stuff.”
—Enid Bagnold (1889–1981)