Gravitational Faraday Effect induced by Dark Matter Spin
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
2024-09-25 v1 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
High Energy Physics - Theory
Abstract
We show that the spin of dark matter induces a gravitational analog of the electromagnetic Faraday effect, where the polarization of gravitational waves undergoes a rotation as they propagate through a dark matter halo with a non-vanishing axial spin tensor (hypermomentum). An expression for the gravitational rotation angle is provided, which is analogous to the Faraday rotation in optics, and evaluate its significance in astrophysical settings. Although the effect is expected to be small under current observational constraints, we discuss its potential importance in the early universe.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2409.15509,
title = {Gravitational Faraday Effect induced by Dark Matter Spin},
author = {F. Barriga and F. Izaurieta and S. Lepe and P. Mesa and J. Muñoz and C. Quinzacara and O. Valdivia},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2409.15509},
year = {2024}
}