Faster than light' photons and charged black holes
Abstract
Photons propagating in curved spacetime may, depending on their direction and polarisation, have velocities exceeding the ``speed of light'' c. This phenomenon arises through vacuum polarisation in QED and is a tidal gravitational effect depending on the local curvature. It implies that the Principle of Equivalence does not hold for interacting quantum field theories in curved spacetime and reflects a quantum violation of local Lorentz invariance. These results are illustrated for the propagation of photons in the Reissner-Nordstr\"om spacetime characterising a charged black hole. A general analysis of electromagnetic as well as gravitational birefringence is presented.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.hep-th/9310114,
title = {Faster than light' photons and charged black holes},
author = {R. D. Daniels and G. M. Shore},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-th/9310114},
year = {2008}
}
Comments
17pages, SWAT 93-9, UGVA-DPT 1993/08-830 (includes three macros undefined in originally submitted version)