The flexibility of optical metrics
Abstract
We firstly revisit the importance, naturalness and limitations of the so-called optical metrics for describing the propagation of light rays in the limit of geometric optics. We then exemplify their flexibility and nontriviality in some nonlinear material media and in the context of nonlinear theories of the electromagnetism, both underlain by curved backgrounds, where optical metrics could be flat and impermeable membranes only to photons could be conceived, respectively. Finally, we underline and discuss the relevance and potential applications of our analyses in a broad sense, ranging from material media to compact astrophysical systems.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1510.02384,
title = {The flexibility of optical metrics},
author = {Eduardo Bittencourt and Jonas P. Pereira and Igor Smolyaninov and Vera N. Smolyaninova},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1510.02384},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
8 pages, some improvements in the physical content. Accepted for publication in Classical and Quantum Gravity