Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-b-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2022/paper-1/section-a/a5/solution

For the propagating mode of an air-filled or evacuated rectangular electromagnetic waveguide, the longitudinal dispersion relation is
The phase velocity and group velocity along the guide are consequently
With waveguide cutoff frequency and carrier frequency , . Thus
The pulse envelope travels at the group velocity for a sufficiently narrow range of frequencies. The phase velocity exceeding the speed of light does not describe superluminal signal transport. The check follows directly from the dispersion relation. A different uniform filling medium would require replacing by its electromagnetic propagation speed; the stated numerical answer uses the usual empty-guide assumption.

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