International Journal of Mathematics and Mathematical Sciences
Volume 14 (1991), Issue 4, Pages 769-788
doi:10.1155/S0161171291001047
Shock waves and Cerenkov radiation in electromagnetic substratum
Department of Materials Science & Engineering, University of Utah, Salt Lake City 84110, Utah, USA
Received 6 March 1991; Revised 4 April 1991
Copyright © 1991 H. E. Wilhelm. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
The EM fields of charged particles moving with velocity v in a physical vacuum with
wave carrier (substratum) are determined by means of the generalized, Galilei covariant Maxwell
equations for inertial frames ∑. with substratum flow w. In this Galilean approach, all velocities
have absolute meaning relative to the substratum rest frame ∑o, and the relative velocity of material
particles is given by the linear Galilean relation vG=v1−v2, permitting in principle superluminal
relative velocities |vG|>co. Inter alias, the possibility of EM shock waves and Cerenkov radiation
in the vacuum substratum is discussed. Experiments are proposed to test the theoretical
predictions.