Related papers: Reflection from Inclined, Relativistic Light Sails
We extend to higher order a recently published method for calculating the deflection angle of light in a general static and spherically symmetric metric. Since the method is convergent we obtain very accurate analytical expressions that we…
Some useful kinematical relations for the absorption of a photon by a nucleus and its recoil are derived for the relativistic incident energies. These expressions provided for the relativistic kinematics of photoabsorption reactions, though…
Two methods of refractometry in reflected light from optical surface of samples are considered and studied experimentally. Methods are grounded on results of Fresnel theory of concerning light reflectivity at near normal incidence and…
We consider a special relativistic effect, known as the Poynting-Robertson effect, on various types of trajectories of solar sails. Since this effect occurs at order $v^{\phi}/c$, where $v^{\phi}$ is the tangential speed relative to the…
Lightsails are a promising spacecraft concept that can reach relativistic speeds via propulsion by laser light, allowing travel to nearby stars within a human lifetime. The success of a lightsail mission requires that any motion in the…
The purpose of this paper is to study the reflections of a convex body. In particular, we are interested in orthogonal reflections of its sections that can be extended to reflections of the whole body. For this reason, we need to study the…
We note that Einstein's relativistic Doppler formula presents a strange aspect. For incident light received under a fixed non zero angle, the Doppler shift will change from blueshift to redshift (or vice-versa) for some critical relative…
Various authors have investigated the problem of light deflection by radially moving gravitational lenses - with inconsistent results. In this paper we generalize the calculations for arbitrary lens velocities and show that, to first order…
Measuring relativistic reflection is an important tool to study the innermost regions of the an accreting black hole system. In the following we present a brief review on the different aspects contributing to the relativistic reflection.…
We develop a non--perturbative method that yields analytical expressions for the deflection angle of light in a general static and spherically symmetric metric. It is an improvement on a method previously devised by the authors, and…
We attempt to see how closely we can formally obtain the planetary and light path equations of General Relativity by employing certain operations on the familiar Newtonian equation. This article is intended neither as an alternative to nor…
It is known that a relative translational motion between the deflector and the observer affects gravitational lensing. In this paper, a lens equation is obtained to describe such effects on actual lensing observables. Results can be easily…
In this letter a new formula for light deflection is derived using only physically observable concepts. The general result is specialized to cosmological perturbation theory and expressed in terms of gauge--invariant perturbation variables.…
The photon mean free path in a relativistically moving medium becomes long in the down-stream direction while short in the up-stream direction. As a result, the observed optical depth $\tau$ becomes small in the downstream direction while…
On the basis of general theoretical results developed previously in [JETP 112, 246 (2011)], we analyze the reflection of quasiresonant light from a plane surface of dense and disordered ensemble of motionless point scatters. Angle…
We consider the scattering of lightlike matter in the presence of a heavy scalar object (such as the Sun or a Schwarzschild black hole). By treating general relativity as an effective field theory we directly compute the nonanalytic…
We recover the relativistic kinetic energy as the result of the work of a force.
We argue that light sails that are rapidly accelerated to relativistic velocities by lasers must be significantly curved in order to reduce their mechanical stresses and avoid tears. Using an integrated opto-thermo-mechanical model, we show…
Achieving relativistic flight to enable extrasolar exploration is one of the dreams of humanity and the long term goal of our NASA Starlight program. We derive a fully relativistic solution for the motion of a spacecraft propelled by…
Light can exert forces on objects, promising to propel a meter-scale lightsail to near the speed of light. The key to address many challenges in such an ambition hinges on the nanostructuring of lightsails to tailor their optical scattering…