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GR: Fachverband Gravitation und Relativitätstheorie

GR 9: Quantum Field Theory in Curved Spacetime

GR 9.3: Talk

Tuesday, March 12, 2024, 18:10–18:30, HBR 14: HS 2

Wigner phase of photonic helicity states in curved spacetime — •Luis Adrian Alanis Rodriguez — Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany — Institute for Quantum Computing (PGI-12), Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich, Germany

We study relativistic effects on polarized photons that travel in a curved spacetime. The considered scenario is one in which photons propagate in the gravitational field of the Earth on a closed path that starts at a terrestrial laboratory, is reflected at one or more satellites, and finally returns to the laboratory. A formalism that takes into account the propagation and the boundary conditions at the mirrors is introduced. We find that after propagating along a closed path as in the aforementioned scenario, a non-trivial Wigner phase is acquired by the photons already in the Schwarzschild spacetime, where previous studies have found a trivial Wigner phase.

Keywords: Wigner phase; Schwarzschild spacetime; Helicity states; Polarization rotation