C from quantum first principles?

[nomadreid]

In the European Physics Journal D, March 2013, 67:58, there is an article "The quantum vacuum as the origin of the speed of light" by Marcel Urban et al (a preprint having appeared in http://arxiv.org/abs/1302.6165) in which a possible derivation for the vacuum permeability and permittivity (and hence the speed of light) are derived from quantum principles, with a possible experiment to test the theory. I don't find any follow-up to this interesting idea. Has this been
(a) accepted
(b) rejected
(c) ignored
in the intervening year?

 

[Zarqon]

According to web of science, the only times that paper has been cited in the past year is by a comment in the original journal, if you have access to it you can check it here (I could not find it on arxiv). There's also a reply to the comment by the authors, but since I didn't read it in detail I don't know whether it's a serious critique on the results or not.

 

[nomadreid]

Thanks, Zarqon. Alas, I do not have access to this journal (nor to the specific article without paying USD40/EUR35/BP30), but your reply answered my question sufficiently: that the paper has not made any appreciable wrinkles in the physics community. I guess I do not completely understand the result, since it would seem to me to be an important one if verified.

 

[Nugatory]

In a possible derivation for the vacuum permeability and permittivity (and hence the speed of light) are derived from quantum principles

As I read the preprint and the abstract of the final paper, they derive the vacuum permeability/permittivity from a model of propagation based on quantum principles. However, this doesn't take us to "and hence the speed of light" - there's a parameter in the model that they set based on the already known speed of light.

 

[nomadreid]

Thanks, Nugatory. It appears (if I understand correctly, for which there is no guarantee) that they are attempting something between your and my statements, in that the c_rel to which I presume you are referring is "the maximum velocity introduced in the Lorentz transformation." However, "...c_rel is not necessarily equal to the speed of light." They may be splitting hairs to distinguish them, but it seems that they are going the path of
c_rel → derivation of μ₀ and ε₀ → c_$\phi$ =c_light=1/(√(μ₀*ε₀) & c_$\phi$=c_rel.
But I would be very happy to be corrected.