Superluminal Behaviors of Electromagnetic Near-fields

Abstract

Superluminal phenomena have been reported in many experiments of electromagnetic wave propagation, where the superluminal behaviors of evanescent waves are the most interesting ones with the important physical significances. Consider that evanescent waves are related to the near-zone fields of electromagnetic sources, based on the first principles, we study the group velocities of electromagnetic fields in near-field region, and show that they can be superluminal, which can provide a heuristic interpretation for the superluminal properties of evanescent waves.