Light propagation through random hyperbolic media: from a pile of sand to large scale structure of present day universe

TL;DR

This paper investigates how electromagnetic waves propagate through complex random media composed of hyperbolic and elliptic regions, revealing significant differences in field distributions with implications for understanding early universe magnetic fields.

Contribution

It introduces a model for electromagnetic propagation in mixed hyperbolic-elliptic random media, highlighting differences in field behavior and potential applications in cosmology.

Findings

Field distributions differ markedly between hyperbolic and elliptic regions.

The model can help estimate ancient magnetic field strengths.

Differences observed in simple and complex media simulations.

Abstract

We analyze electromagnetic field propagation through a random medium which consists of hyperbolic metamaterial domains separated by regions of normal "elliptic" space. This situation may occur in a problem as common as 9 micrometer light propagation through a pile of sand, or as exotic as electromagnetic field behavior in the early universe immediately after the electro-weak phase transition. We demonstrate that spatial field distributions in random hyperbolic and random "elliptic" media look strikingly different. This effect may potentially be used to evaluate the magnitude of magnetic fields which existed in the early universe.