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How do electromagnetic waves carry information about objects they interact with?

26 Jul 2024 Isabelle Dumé
Diagram of the experimental setup
Where the information comes from: In the experimental part of the work, the researchers placed Teflon objects (orange cylinders) in a waveguide with a rectangular cross-section. They then injected an electromagnetic signal (blue wavefront) from the right to extract information about the metallic cuboid shown in grey. By measuring the wave field in the area indicated in red, the researchers could show how information is generated and transported by an electromagnetic signal. For example, the flow of information about the horizontal position of the cuboid is shown in the inset at the bottom right (blue arrows). One sees that information is generated on the cuboid's right-hand side and then transported to the right towards the opening of the waveguide. (Courtesy: TU Wien)
As electromagnetic waves travel, they collect information about their environment. This property is

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Isabelle Dumé is a contributing editor to Physics World
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