About light physicists discover "astonishing" propertt of light that defies expectations

Oct 13, 2026 Last reply: 2 days ago 2 Replies
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Physicists discover "astonishing" property of light that defies expectations Date: October 13, 2026 Source: University of East Anglia Summary: Scientists have uncovered a surprising hidden ability of light that allows it to develop spinning, twisting behavior as it travels through empty space, without special lenses, mirrors, or materials. Researchers discovered that light’s internal geometry can naturally produce left- and right-handed patterns, challenging long-standing assumptions about how light behaves. By carefully arranging a beam’s structure, scientists can control where and how these spinning patterns emerge, unlocking a new way to manipulate light.



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At least it's a nice example of nominative determinism: The experimenter's name is Light Mkhumbuza.

Jeroen Belleman

Yeah, the optical orbital angular momentum crowd continues to mumble on.

BITD their fellow travelers were claiming to have discovered a huge new class of optical modes, that would enable a huge increase in fiber optic bandwidth, yada yada.

Then some more level-headed folk pointed out that if those modes were really distinct, blackbody radiation would be much stronger than is observed.

Oops.

Another line of reasoning is that plane waves are a complete orthonormal basis for the solutions of the vector wave equation, but that would be piling on. ;)

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

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