Refraction in spacetime
Abstract
Refraction, interference, and diffraction serve as distinguishing features for wave-like phenomena. While they are normally associated only with a purely spatial wave-propagation pattern, analogs to interference and diffraction involving the spatio-temporal dynamics of waves in one dimension (1D) have been pointed out. Here we complete the triplet of analogies by discussing how spatio-temporal analogs to refraction are exhibited by a quantum particle in 1D that is scattering off a step barrier. Similarly, birefringence in spacetime occurs for a spin-1/2 particle in a magnetic field. These examples serve to illustrate basics of quantum time evolution from a new perspective.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1012.4544,
title = {Refraction in spacetime},
author = {M. Jaaskelainen and M. Lombard and U. Zuelicke},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1012.4544},
year = {2011}
}
Comments
7 pages, 4 figures, RevTex4.1. This article has been conditionally accepted by the American Journal of Physics. After it is published, it will be found at http://scitation.aip.org/ajp/