Cherenkov Radiation

Nikhil Shukla (nshukla30)

Sorry about this! Sent an email back - Alexis

Cherenkov radiation, named for Soviet Scientist Pavel A. Cherenkov, is a fascinating phenomena that occurs when charges move faster than light through a particular medium. One commonly recognized example of Cherenkov radiation is in nuclear reactors which have a characteristic blue glow as a result [1].

The Main Idea

Cherenkov Radiation is analogous to a "sonic-boom of light". There are two vital parts to Cherenkov Radiation. The first is a dielectric medium and the second is a a charged particle moving faster than the phase- velocity of light. A dielectric medium is simply a medium that is an insulator but can be polarized by an external electric field. Since c, the speed of light, is commonly accepted to be the universal speed limit it seems counter-intuitive to think that any particle can move faster than light. It is important to understand, however, that light travels slower through different mediums (i.e. water, glass, etc.) The reason behind this dives into Quantum Electrodynamics (Feynman has a great book on this) but can also be pseudo-explained using classical theories. The second important concept is the phase velocity of light. The phase velocity of light is different than the group

Electric Field of Capacitor

A Computational Model

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