Geometrical optics for scalar, electromagnetic and gravitational waves on curved spacetime

DOI10.1142/S0218271818430101zbMATH Open1430.78003arXiv1806.08617OpenAlexW2951819821WikidataQ59279964 ScholiaQ59279964MaRDI QIDQ5216629FDOQ5216629

Sam R. Dolan

Publication date: 18 February 2020

Published in: International Journal of Modern Physics D (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: The geometrical-optics expansion reduces the problem of solving wave equations to one of solving transport equations along rays. Here we consider scalar, electromagnetic and gravitational waves propagating on a curved spacetime in general relativity. We show that each is governed by a wave equation with the same principal part. It follows that: each wave propagates at the speed of light along rays (null generators of hypersurfaces of constant phase); the square of the wave amplitude varies in inverse proportion to the cross section of the beam; and the polarization is parallel-propagated along the ray (the Skrotskii/Rytov effect). We show that the optical scalars for a beam, and various Newman-Penrose scalars describing a parallel-propagated null tetrad, can be found by solving transport equations in a second-order formulation. Unlike the Sachs equations, this formulation makes it straightforward to find such scalars beyond the first conjugate point of a congruence, where neighbouring rays cross, and the scalars diverge. We discuss differential precession across the beam which leads to a modified phase in the geometrical-optics expansion.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1806.08617

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zbMATH Keywords

electromagnetismcurved spacetimegravitational wavesgeometrical optics

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Geometric optics (78A05) Gravitational waves (83C35)

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Cited In (14)

• Geometrical optics in stationary space-times
• Optical geometry analysis of the electromagnetic self-force
• On the aberration of waves in classical spacetime
• Geometric optics approximation for the Einstein vacuum equations
• Optical activity induced by curvature in a gravitational pp-wave background
• Critique of the use of geodesics in astrophysics and cosmology
• Title not available (Why is that?)
• Reduced phase space optics for general relativity: symplectic ray bundle transfer
• Gravitational waves and geometrical optics in scalar-tensor theories
• Gravitational spinoptics in a curved space-time
• Gravitational lensing beyond geometric optics. II: Metric independence
• Spinoptics in the Schwarzschild spacetime
• Spin Hall effects in the sky
• Invariants of magnetic lines for Yang-Mills solutions

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