Riemannian light cone from vanishing birefringence in premetric vacuum electrodynamics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
2016-08-16 v2
Abstract
We consider premetric electrodynamics with a local and linear constitutive law for the vacuum. Within this framework, we find quartic Fresnel wave surfaces for the propagation of light. If we require vanishing birefringence in vacuum, then a Riemannian light cone is implied. No proper Finslerian structure can occur. This is generalized to dynamical equations of any order.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.gr-qc/0409072,
title = {Riemannian light cone from vanishing birefringence in premetric vacuum electrodynamics},
author = {Claus Lämmerzahl and Friedrich W. Hehl},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:gr-qc/0409072},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
12 pages latex