Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Belenchia, Alessio, Spengler, Felix, Rätzel, Dennis, Braun, Daniel
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.09930
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866910878319771648
author Belenchia, Alessio
Spengler, Felix
Rätzel, Dennis
Braun, Daniel
author_facet Belenchia, Alessio
Spengler, Felix
Rätzel, Dennis
Braun, Daniel
contents That light propagating in a gravitational field gets frequency-shifted is one of the basic consequences of any metric theory of gravity rooted in the equivalence principle. At the same time, also a time dependent material's refractive index can frequency-shift light propagating in it. The mathematical analogy between the two effects is such that the latter has been used to study the optical analogue of a black-hole spacetime. Here, we combine these two effects by showing that light propagation in non-linear media in the presence of a moving refractive index perturbation can lead to a gravity-dependent blueshift. We find that the predicted blueshift surpasses the gravitational redshift even if the medium is considered to be perfectly stiff. In realistic scenarios, by far the strongest frequency shift arises due to the deformation of the dielectric medium and the corresponding photoelastic change of refractive index. This has the potential to facilitate optical sensing of small gravity gradients.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2402_09930
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Non-linear media in weakly curved spacetime: optical solitons and probe pulses for gravimetry
Belenchia, Alessio
Spengler, Felix
Rätzel, Dennis
Braun, Daniel
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
That light propagating in a gravitational field gets frequency-shifted is one of the basic consequences of any metric theory of gravity rooted in the equivalence principle. At the same time, also a time dependent material's refractive index can frequency-shift light propagating in it. The mathematical analogy between the two effects is such that the latter has been used to study the optical analogue of a black-hole spacetime. Here, we combine these two effects by showing that light propagation in non-linear media in the presence of a moving refractive index perturbation can lead to a gravity-dependent blueshift. We find that the predicted blueshift surpasses the gravitational redshift even if the medium is considered to be perfectly stiff. In realistic scenarios, by far the strongest frequency shift arises due to the deformation of the dielectric medium and the corresponding photoelastic change of refractive index. This has the potential to facilitate optical sensing of small gravity gradients.
title Non-linear media in weakly curved spacetime: optical solitons and probe pulses for gravimetry
topic General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.09930