Speed of Light Theory Challenged By Physicists; Was Einstein’s View Of The Universe Wrong?
A new study by physicists João Magueijo, of Imperial College London, and Niayesh Afshordi, of the University of Waterloo, is questioning the validity of Albert Einstein's claim that the speed of light is constant. Mageuijo and Afshordi posited that the speed of light could have been much faster following the Big Bang, which is the prevailing cosmological model for the origin of the universe.
According to "The Guardian", the new study might overturn Einstein's theory on the speed of light, which describes light as the fundamental excitations or quanta of the photons or electromagnetic fields. The physicists estimated the temperature of the cosmos was ten thousand trillion celsius in which light tore along at infinite speed at the birth of the universe.
Magueijo and Afshordi published their findings in the November issue of the journal "Physical Review." The Christian Science Monitor highlighted the impact of their theory on the speed of light on the very foundation of modern physics. They might disprove Einstein's musings about the origin of the universe.
Lead author João Magueijo proposed the theory of variable speed of light in 1996 to counter the more popular "inflation theory" first postulated by Einstein in 1905. If proven true, his position on the speed of light would mean that "the laws of nature were not always the same as they are today" and are opposed to Einstein's arguments.
Magueijo and colleagues are studying the cosmic microwave backgrounds (CMB) to prove the theory of variable speed of light (VSL). This radiative "afterglow" produced by Big Bang have long been useful to physicists who attempted to explore new insights about the birth of the universe and its early periods.
The VSL theory calculated the spectral index of the universe at exactly 0.96478, which is not too far off from current estimates of 0.968. Magueijo's and Afshordi's theory will be proven wrong if future measurements of the CMB show a mismatch.
