Related papers: Cosmologically Screwy Light
Polarization of electromagnetic waves carries a large amount of information about their astrophysical emitters and the media they passed through, and hence is crucial in various aspects of astronomy. Here we demonstrate an important but…
We predict theoretically and demonstrate experimentally an ellipticity-dependent nonlinear magneto-optic rotation of elliptically-polarized light propagating in a coherent atomic medium. We show that this effect results from a hexadecapole…
This paper summarizes recent developments in the study of the propagation of ultra-high energy cosmic ray protons or nuclei in the Universe, with emphasis on the consequences of energy losses and on the influence of extra-galactic magnetic…
Optical rectification of intense, circularly polarized light penetrating a material generates a static magnetic field aligned with the light's direction and proportional to its intensity. Recent experiments have unveiled a substantial,…
The cosmic rays spectrum has been shown to extend well beyond 10^20 eV. With nearly 20 events observed in the last 40 years, it is now established that particles with energies near or above 10^21 eV. No nearby astrophysical object has been…
The extremely high precision of current astronomical observations demands a much better theoretical treatment of relativistic effects in the propagation of electromagnetic signals through variable gravitational fields of isolated…
A circularly polarized electromagnetic plane wave carries an electric field that rotates clockwise or counterclockwise around the propagation direction of the wave. According to the handedness of this rotation, its \emph{longitudinal} spin…
It is well-known that electromagnetic radiation propagates along a straight line, but this common sense was broken by the artificial curved light - Airy beam. In this paper, we demonstrate a new type of curved light beam besides Airy beam,…
The description of the transport of cosmic rays in magnetized media is central to both acceleration and propagation of these particles in our Galaxy and outside. The investigation of the process of particle acceleration, especially at shock…
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…
The propagation of cosmic rays in turbulent magnetic fields is a diffusive process driven by the scattering of the charged particles by random magnetic fluctuations. Such fields are usually highly intermittent, consisting of intense…
We point on a different possible explanation of the observations reported recently by Nodland and Ralston, PRL 78 (1997) 3043 [astro-ph/9704196]. The dipole anisotropy of the polarization of radiation from the distant radio sources can be…
We draw attention to observational evidence indicating that a substantial fraction of the well-known cosmic celestial diffuse ultraviolet background radiation field is actually due not to dust-scattered starlight, but rather---considering…
We describe a novel phenomenon occurring when a polarized Gaussian beam of light is observed in a Cartesian reference frame whose axes are not parallel to the direction of propagation of the beam. Such phenomenon amounts to an intriguing…
We have made a new calculation of the cosmic ray electron spectrum using an anomalous diffusion model to describe the propagation of electrons in the Galaxy. The parameters defining the anomalous diffusion have been recently determined from…
Recently the PVLAS collaboration has reported the observation of rotation of polarization of light propagating in a background magnetic field. In this letter we explore the possibility that such a rotation is a result of noncommutativity in…
We theoretically show that a single free electron in circular/spiral motion radiates an electromagnetic wave possessing helical phase structure and carrying orbital angular momentum. We experimentally demonstrate it by double-slit…
Quantum corrections to electron dynamics in a circularly polarized electromagnetic field are found within the Floquet theory of periodically driven quantum systems. It is demonstrated that emission of photons by an electron rotating under…
Wave propagation inside generalized gyrotropic media is considered in the present Letter. It is shown that in this type of materials, the left- and right- handed circularly polarized light can be coupled to each other, which may possess…
Measurements of the polarization angle and orientation of cosmological radio sources may be used to search for unusual effects in the propagation of light through the universe. Recently, Nodland and Ralston (astro-ph/9704196) have claimed…