Acceleration toward polarization singularity inspired by relativistic ExB drift

TL;DR

This paper draws an analogy between relativistic charged particle dynamics and the evolution of optical polarization states near singularities, revealing new insights into PT-symmetry phase transitions and enabling novel polarization control devices.

Contribution

It introduces a Lorentz pseudo-force framework for polarization evolution, connecting relativistic dynamics to optical polarization singularities and designing directional eigenstates at exceptional points.

Findings

Polarization evolution near singularities mimics relativistic charged particle motion.

Zero Lorentz pseudo-force leads to polarization convergence at exceptional points.

Design of achiral, directional eigenstates enables novel linear polarizers.

Abstract

The relativistic trajectory of a charged particle driven by the Lorentz force is different from the classical one, by velocity-dependent relativistic acceleration term. Here we show that the evolution of optical polarization states near the polarization singularity can be described in analogy to the relativistic dynamics of charged particles. A phase transition in parity-time symmetric potentials is then interpreted in terms of the competition between electric and magnetic 'pseudo'-fields applied to polarization states. Based on this Lorentz pseudo-force representation, we reveal that zero Lorentz pseudo-force is the origin of recently reported strong polarization convergence to the singular state at the exceptional point. We also demonstrate the deterministic design of achiral and directional eigenstates at the exceptional point, allowing an anomalous linear polarizer which operates orthogonal to forward and backward waves. Our results linking parity-time symmetry and relativistic electrodynamics show that previous PT-symmetric potentials for the polarization singularity with a chiral eigenstate are the subset of optical potentials for the ExB "polarization" drift.