Faster than light photons in gravitational fields. II: Dispersion and vacuum polarisation

DOI10.1016/S0550-3213(02)00240-7zbMATH Open0996.83038arXivgr-qc/0203034OpenAlexW4300702162MaRDI QIDQ1597928FDOQ1597928

Authors: Graham M. Shore 

Publication date: 3 June 2002

Published in: Nuclear Physics B (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: Vacuum polarisation in QED in a background gravitational field induces interactions which effectively violate the strong equivalence principle and affect the propagation of light. In the low frequency limit, Drummond and Hathrell have shown that this mechanism leads to superluminal photon velocities. To confront this phenomenon with causality, however, it is necessary to extend the calculation of the phase velocity $vp(w)$ to high frequencies, since it is $vp(infty)$ which determines the characteristics of the effective wave equation and thus the causal structure. In this paper, we use a recently constructed expression, valid to all orders in a derivative expansion, for the effective action of QED in curved spacetime to determine the frequency dependence of the phase velocity and investigate whether superluminal velocities indeed persist in the high frequency limit.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0203034

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zbMATH Keywords

effective wave equationQED vacuum polarizationstrong equivalence principle violation

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Equations of motion in general relativity and gravitational theory (83C10) Quantum field theory on curved space or space-time backgrounds (81T20) Anomalies in quantum field theory (81T50) Space-time singularities, cosmic censorship, etc. (83C75)

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Cited In (19)

• A local effective action for photon-gravity interactions
• Dispersive property of the quantum vacuum and the speed of light
• ``Faster than light photons and charged black holes.
• Propagation of vacuum polarized photons in topological black hole spacetimes
• A comparative study on the convergence rate of some iteration methods involving contractive mappings
• Causality and micro-causality in curved spacetime
• Dynamics and scattering of a massless particle
• Superluminality and UV completion
• ``Faster than light photons in gravitational fields - causality, anomalies and horizons
• Constructing Time Machines
• Low-energy electromagnetic radiation as an indirect probe of black-hole evaporation
• Density Matrix Description of Fast and Slow Light Propagation in Sodium Vapour
• Graviton propagation and vacuum polarization in curved space
• Photon propagation in Einstein and higher derivative gravity
• Superluminal propagation of light in gravitational field and non-causal signals
• The causal structure of QED in curved spacetime: analyticity and the refractive index
• The Maslov index and some applications to dispersion relations in curved space times
• The refractive index of curved spacetime: The fate of causality in QED
• Aspects of nonlocality in quantum field theory, quantum gravity and cosmology

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