this post was submitted on 18 May 2026
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Science

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[–] Usernamealreadyinuse@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I read the article, i think I understand what they did (sort of)... But can someone eli5 what they did but especially what the hypothesis is that happens to explain negative time

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Photon comes out before it goes in.

I don't really understand it either, but keep in mind this is happening at nearly lightspeed, so it's not like the detector is lighting up right before they press the button to emit the photon.

Which makes me wonder, what happens if you combine this with "slow light" effects.

[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

But only after a decision was made by a person to create the photon? Because otherwise that would be pretty spooky.

[–] it_wasnt_arson@awful.systems 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, it's only once the photons in front of it could already have gotten there, so it's like photons from the tail end of the pulse are catching up to the front as it emerges, even though they haven't even entered the cloud yet.

[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 1 points 1 day ago

Yeah that's pretty weird but nobody could ever notice unless they knew what to look for. Now, if you had light beams coming out of there like 3 seconds before pressing the buttons, that would be scary weird.

[–] deft@lemmy.wtf 8 points 2 days ago

Yeah yeah. I understand too but like someone should explain it to everyone else so they understand..