Light Experiments at IAP, Darmstadt: Einstein's Speculations

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SUMMARY

The discussion centers on the groundbreaking work by Halfmann and his team at the IAP, Darmstadt, who successfully brought light to a standstill within a material for approximately one minute. This achievement prompts a comparison to Einstein's theoretical musings on the implications of traveling at the speed of light. The conversation raises critical questions regarding the distinction between the mathematics of Lorentz transformations and the physical equations governing the cessation of light within a material medium. The consensus is that slowing light does not relate to Lorentz transformations.

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The news threads and press releases I have read of the work of Halfmann and his colleagues at the IAP, Darmstadt, report that they were able to bring "light" to a "standstill" within a material for about a minute. I haven't had the chance to read the groups published papers on the subject yet, but, it did bring to mind Einstein's speculations and effort to imagine (theoretically), what one would "observe" traveling at the speed of light. The thought begged the question:

Is there a material difference between (a) the mathematics for bringing two disparate inertial frames of reference into coincidence (a continuous Lorentz transformation) and (b) the equations necessary to physically represent the act of causing light to come to a standstill within our frame of reference?
 
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Slowing light in a material has nothing to do with Lorentz transformations.
 
Thank you DaleSpam. That's what I thought.
 

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