Higher-curvature corrections induce polarization-dependent effective metrics for photons that shift photon spheres, alter eikonal quasinormal modes, and modify deflection angles in static spherically symmetric backgrounds.
``Faster than Light'' Photons in Gravitational Fields -- Causality, Anomalies and Horizons
1 Pith paper cite this work. Polarity classification is still indexing.
1
Pith paper citing it
abstract
A number of general issues relating to superluminal photon propagation in gravitational fields are explored. The possibility of superluminal, yet causal, photon propagation arises because of Equivalence Principle violating interactions induced by vacuum polarisation in QED in curved spacetime. Two general theorems are presented: first, a polarisation sum rule which relates the polarisation averaged velocity shift to the matter energy-momentum tensor and second, a `horizon theorem' which ensures that the geometric event horizon for black hole spacetimes remains a true horizon for real photon propagation in QED. A comparision is made with the equivalent results for electromagnetic birefringence and possible connections between superluminal photon propagation, causality and the conformal anomaly are exposed.
fields
gr-qc 1years
2026 1verdicts
UNVERDICTED 1representative citing papers
citing papers explorer
-
Polarization-Dependent Photon Propagation, Quasinormal Modes, and Gravitational Lensing in Higher-Curvature Effective Theories
Higher-curvature corrections induce polarization-dependent effective metrics for photons that shift photon spheres, alter eikonal quasinormal modes, and modify deflection angles in static spherically symmetric backgrounds.