Can Magnets Bend Light for Invisibility Cloaks?

In summary, magnets can bend the path of any moving charged particle, including electrons, but not light since it has no charge. However, a changing magnetic field can indirectly bend light through a quantum effect called Delbrück scattering, but it is too small to measure. CRT televisions use magnets to bend the path of electrons, not light, to create a video image. Light is affected by gravity, as demonstrated by its bending around stars, which was one of the first tests of relativity.
  • #36
If you want an invisibility cloak, what we need is a flexible high resolution screen and a lot of sensors. The image that is displayed is measured by the sensors on the other side of the cloak. This would be hard to realize as there are no flexible screens yet (although I've heard they're working on it), but it sounds like cool sci-fi :P .
 
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  • #37
ImAnEngineer said:
If you want an invisibility cloak, what we need is a flexible high resolution screen and a lot of sensors. The image that is displayed is measured by the sensors on the other side of the cloak. This would be hard to realize as there are no flexible screens yet (although I've heard they're working on it), but it sounds like cool sci-fi :P .

Except that setup still casts a shadow and will reflect and diffract electromagnetic waves. The crude solutions they have come up with using metamaterials are true invisibility cloaks.
 

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