Related papers: Polarization Diffusion from Spacetime Uncertainty
We have recently shown that in a highly magnetized neutron star atmospheric plasma, vacuum polarization can induce resonant conversion of photon polarization modes via a mechanism analogous to MSW neutrino oscillation. In a recent paper…
We consider emission of a photon by an electron in the field of a strong laser wave. Polarization effects in this process are important for a number of physical problems. A probability of this process for circularly or linearly polarized…
The polarization of the CMB offers a potentially valuable probe of the physics of the early universe, specifically of the velocity of the photon-baryon fluid on the last scattering surface. Here we discuss qualitatively the correlations…
One of the most intriguing hints of a departure from the standard cosmological model is a large-scale dipolar power asymmetry in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). If not a statistical fluke, its origins must lie in the modulation of…
We investigate the Wigner rotation for photons, which governs the change in the polarization of the photon as it propagates through an arbitrary gravitational field. We give explicit examples in Schwarzschild spacetime, and compare with the…
This chapter introduces the concepts of polarimetry in the case of low frequency radio astronomy. In this regime radio waves are usually not the signature of atomic or molecular transitions lines, but rather that of unstable particle…
When polarized electrons traverse a region where the laser light is focused their polarization varies even if their energy and direction of motion are not changed. This effect is due to interference of the incoming electron wave and an…
A new theory is presented for the development of circular polarization as radio waves propagate through the turbulent, birefringent interstellar medium. The fourth order moments of the wavefield are calculated and it is shown that…
Gravitons are the quantum counterparts of gravitational waves in low-energy theories of gravity. Using Feynman rules one can compute scattering amplitudes describing the interaction between gravitons and other fields. Here, we consider the…
Weak lensing distortion of the background cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and polarization patterns by the foreground density fluctuations is well studied in the literature. We discuss the gravitational lensing modification to…
We consider the effects of vacuum polarization and proton cyclotron resonances on the propagation of radiation through a strongly magnetized plasma. We analyze the conditions under which the photons evolve adiabatically through the resonant…
Radiatively decaying dark matter may be searched through investigating the photon spectrum of galaxies and galaxy clusters. We explore whether the properties of dark matter can be constrained through the study of a polarization state of…
The nonlinear propagation of intense incoherent photons in a photon gas is considered. The photon-photon interactions are governed by a pair of equations comprising a wave-kinetic equation for the incoherent photons in the presence of the…
Scattering of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) in clusters of galaxies polarizes the radiation. We explore several polarization components which have their origin in the kinematic quadrupole moments induced by the motion of the…
Certain modified gravity theories predict the existence of an additional, non-conformally coupled scalar field. A disformal coupling of the field to the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) is shown to affect the evolution of the energy…
Photons preferentially Compton scatter perpendicular to the plane of polarisation. This property can be exploited to design instruments to measure the linear polarisation of hard X-rays ($\sim$10 - 100 keV). Photons may undergo two…
We present a theoretical study of radiative transfer in strongly magnetized electron-ion plasmas, focusing on the effect of vacuum polarization due to quantum electrodynamics. This study is directly relevant to thermal radiation from the…
Possible violations of Lorentz invariance (LIV) can produce vacuum birefringence, which results in a frequency-dependent rotation of the polarization plane of linearly polarized light from distant sources. In this paper, we try to search…
It is known that vacuum polarization can modify the photon propagation modes in the atmospheric plasma of a strongly magnetized neutron star. A resonance occurs when the effect of vacuum polarization on the photon modes balances that of the…
We consider the decoherence of photons suffering in phase-damping channels. By exploring the evolutions of single-photon polarization states and two-photon polarization-entangled states, we find that different frequency spectrum envelopes…