Finite Rest Masses of Wave Quanta in Inhomogeneous Material Media

Abstract

Snell's law is put in such a form that the bending of wave trajectories in inhomogeneous media can be compared with the bending due to a mechanical force field as deduced in an earlier paper (Cole 1971). Two experiments are proposed to detect this bending effect. Though small in terrestrial conditions, the effect may be significant in the vicinity of some massive celestial objects such as pulsars. It is shown that the Coulomb law in ~ cold plasma is of Yukawa form in which the scale distance is c/(fJp where (fJp is the plasma frequency. This distance is the Compton wavelength of the particle defined by wave quanta in the plasma.