Signal Velocity, Causality, and Quantum Noise in Superluminal Light Pulse Propagation

We consider pulse propagation in a linear anomalously dispersive medium where the group velocity exceeds the speed of light in vacuum ( c) or even becomes negative. A signal velocity is defined operationally based on the optical signal-to-noise ratio, and is computed for cases appropriate to the recent experiment where such a negative group velocity was observed. It is found that quantum fluctuations limit the signal velocity to values less than c.