Related papers: An Analog Model for Light Propagation in Semiclass…
Vacuum polarisation in QED in a background gravitational field induces interactions which effectively violate the strong equivalence principle and affect the propagation of light. In the low frequency limit, Drummond and Hathrell have shown…
The linearized Einstein field equations with the renormalized stress tensor of a massless quantum scalar field as source are solved in the 4-dimensional spacetime near an infinite plane boundary. The motion of particles and light is…
Using the path-integral formalism, we show that photons possess a nontrivial quantum metric in momentum space. We derive the semiclassical action and equations of motion by taking into account the quantum metric. In media with a spatially…
The basic aim of the thesis is the study of the propagation of particles and quasiparticles in non-trivial backgrounds from the quantum field theory point of view. By "non-trivial background" we mean either a non-vacuum state in Minkowski…
Zero-point fluctuations are a universal consequence of quantum theory. Vacuum fluctuations of electromagnetic field have provided crucial evidence and guidance for QED as a successful quantum field theory with a defining gauge symmetry…
Some models of quantum gravity can predict observable effects on the propagation of light: most notably an energy dependent dispersion, where the speed of light is seen to vary with the energy of the photon. As quantum gravity effects…
Light undergoes perturbation as gravitational waves pass by. This is shown by solving Maxwell's equations in a spacetime with gravitational waves; a solution exhibits a perturbation due to gravitational waves. We determine the perturbation…
Vacuum fluctuations of quantum fields are altered in presence of a strong gravitational background, with important physical consequences. We argue that a non-trivial spacetime geometry can act as an optically active medium for quantum…
We study the magnitude of semiclassical gravity effects near the formation of a black-hole horizon in spherically-symmetric spacetimes. As a probe for these effects we use a quantised massless scalar field. Specifically, we calculate two…
The propagation of neutrinos in a gravitational field is studied. A method of calculating a covariant quantum-mechanical phase in a curved space-time is presented. The result is used to calculate gravitational effects on the neutrino…
We present a general relativistic framework for studying gravitational effects in quantum mechanical phenomena. We concentrate our attention on the case of ultra-relativistic, spin-1/2 particles propagating in Kerr spacetime. The…
The behaviour of a "test" electromagnetic field in the background of an exact gravitational plane wave is investigated in the framework of Einstein's general relativity. We have expressed the general solution to the de Rham equations as a…
In [5] we investigated the response of vacuum energy to a gravitational field by considering a Casimir apparatus in a weak gravitational field. Our approach was based on a conjecture involving the interpretation of spacetime as a refractive…
The bases of the theory of light reflection and absorption by low-dimensional semiconductor objects (quantum wells, wires and dots) at both monochromatic and pulse irradiations and at any form of light pulses are developed. The…
It is shown that the complete description of the propagation of light in a gravitational field and in non-inertial reference frames in general requires an average coordinate and an average proper velocity of light. The need for an average…
Detections of gravitational wave (GW) stimulate the discussion of how GWs propagate in the expanding Universe. General relativity predicts that GWs are massless and propagate at the speed of light with no extra friction term, which relates…
This thesis contributes to the field of gravitational lensing (GL) and observational cosmology. We discuss the use of gravitational lensing as a tool in search of exotic objects in the Universe. In the next chapter the concordance of an…
In 1+3 (threading) formulation of general relativity spacetime behaves analogous to a medium with a specific index of refraction with respect to the light propagation. Accepting the reality of zero point energy, through the equivalence…
Gravitational field can cause a rotation of polarisation plane of light. This phenomenon is known as the gravitational Faraday effect. We study the gravitational Faraday effect of linearly polarised light propagating in the gravitational…
We investigate the propagation of scalar waves induced by matter sources in the context of scalar-tensor theories of gravity which include screening mechanisms for the scalar degree of freedom. The usual approach when studying these…