Do electromagnetic waves always propagate along null geodesics?

DOI10.1088/1361-6382/AA8B48zbMATH Open1380.83065arXiv1608.06572OpenAlexW3103107858MaRDI QIDQ4603096FDOQ4603096

Authors: Felipe A. Asenjo, Sergio A. Hojman 

Publication date: 19 February 2018

Published in: Classical and Quantum Gravity (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: We find exact solutions to Maxwell equations written in terms of four-vector potentials in non--rotating, as well as in G"odel and Kerr spacetimes. We show that Maxwell equations can be reduced to two uncoupled second-order differential equations for combinations of the components of the four-vector potential. Exact electromagnetic waves solutions are written on given gravitational field backgrounds where they evolve. We find that in non--rotating spherical symmetric spacetimes, electromagnetic waves travel along null geodesics. However, electromagnetic waves on G"odel and Kerr spacetimes do not exhibit that behavior.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1608.06572

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zbMATH Keywords

curved spacetimeelectromagnetic wavesnon-null geodesics

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Equations of motion in general relativity and gravitational theory (83C10) Applications of differential geometry to physics (53Z05) Exact solutions to problems in general relativity and gravitational theory (83C15) Einstein-Maxwell equations (83C22) Electromagnetic fields in general relativity and gravitational theory (83C50)

Cites Work

• The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time
• Electromagnetic fields in curved spacetimes
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• Radiation damping in a gravitational field
• Electromagnetic Waves in Gravitational Fields
• On the possibility of non-geodesic motion of massless spinning tops
• Spinning massive test particles in cosmological and general static spherically symmetric spacetimes
• Can gravitation accelerate neutrinos?

Cited In (12)

• The limitations of inertial frame spacetime functionalism
• On the empirical coherence and the spatiotemporal gap problem in quantum gravity: and why functionalism does not (have to) help
• Wave operators, torsion, and Weitzenböck identities
• Kinematical waves in spacetime
• Electromagnetic potentials in curved spacetimes
• A note on the geometrical-optics solution to the Maxwell tensor wave equation in curved spacetime
• Is \(n \sin \, \theta\) conserved along the light path?
• Comment on ‘Do electromagnetic waves always propagate along null geodesics?’
• Reply to Comment on ‘Do electromagnetic waves always propagate along null geodesics?’
• Transport properties of a class of electromagnetic waves
• The effect of dark matter discreteness on light propagation
• Vanishing Poynting observers and electromagnetic field classification in Kerr and Kerr-Newman spacetimes

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