Equivalence Principles, Spacetime Structure and the Cosmic Connection

TL;DR

This paper explores how the equivalence principle and electrodynamics shape our understanding of spacetime structure, using cosmic photon propagation to test fundamental physics and constrain spacetime metrics with axion and dilaton degrees of freedom.

Contribution

It provides a detailed account of constructing the light cone and core metric from the equivalence principle, supported by cosmic observations, and links these to experimental constraints on spacetime properties.

Findings

Photon nonbirefringence verifies the Galileo Equivalence Principle.

Constraints on axion and dilaton fields from cosmic propagation.

Experiments tie the core metric to matter metric, supporting universality of metrology.

Abstract

After reviewing the meaning of various equivalence principles and the structure of electrodynamics, we give a fairly detailed account of the construction of the light cone and a core metric from the equivalence principle for the photon (no birefringence, no polarization rotation and no amplification/attenuation in propagation) in the framework of linear electrodynamics using cosmic connections/observations as empirical support. The cosmic nonbirefringent propagation of photons independent of energy and polarization verifies the Galileo Equivalence Principle [Universality of Propagation] for photons/electromagnetic wave packets in spacetime. This nonbirefringence constrains the spacetime constitutive tensor to high precision to a core metric form with an axion degree and a dilaton degree of freedom. Thus comes the metric with axion and dilation. Constraints on axion and dilaton from astrophysical/cosmic propagation are reviewed. E\"otv\"os-type experiments, Hughes-Drever-type experiments, redshift experiments then constrain and tie this core metric to agree with the matter metric, and hence a unique physical metric and universality of metrology. We summarize these experiments and review how the Galileo equivalence principle constrains the Einstein Equivalence Principle (EEP) theoretically. In local physics this physical metric gives the Lorentz/Poincar\'e covariance. Understanding that the metric and EEP come from the vacuum as a medium of electrodynamics in the linear regime, efforts to actively look for potential effects beyond this linear scheme are warranted.