A possible approach on optical analogues of gravitational attractors

TL;DR

This paper explores the design of refractive index distributions that can trap light in orbital geodesics, creating optical analogues of gravitational attractors with potential applications in photonics and celestial mechanics experiments.

Contribution

It introduces a method to generate refractive index mappings that confine light in orbital paths, bridging optical physics with gravitational analogies.

Findings

Refractive index distributions successfully trap light in open orbit manifolds.

Simulations demonstrate stable light confinement under various initial conditions.

Potential applications include optical memories and time delay devices.

Abstract

In this paper we report on the feasibility of light confinement in orbital geodesics on stationary, planar, and centro-symmetric refractive index mappings. Constrained to fabrication and [meta]material limitations, the refractive index, n, has been bounded to the range: $0.8\leq n(\vec r)\leq 3.5$. Mappings are obtained through the inverse problem to the light geodesics equations, considering trappings by generalized orbit conditions defined \emph{a priori}. Our simulation results show that the above mentioned refractive index distributions trap light in an open orbit manifold, both perennial and temporal, in regards to initial conditions. Moreover, due to their characteristics, these mappings could be advantageous to optical computing and telecommunications, for example, providing an on-demand time delay or optical memories. Furthermore, beyond their practical applications to photonics, these mappings set forth an attractive realm to construct a panoply of celestial mechanics analogies and experiments in the laboratory