Polarization rotation and near-Earth quantum communications

TL;DR

This paper examines the gravitational Faraday effect's impact on quantum communications with Earth satellites, quantifying phase shifts and proposing a reference frame independent mitigation scheme.

Contribution

It analyzes the gravitational Faraday and Wigner phases in satellite communications and introduces a scheme to mitigate related errors regardless of frame misalignments.

Findings

Faraday rotation phase is about 10^-10 in Earth satellite links.

Wigner phase is approximately 10^-4 to 10^-5 under similar conditions.

A reference frame independent scheme effectively mitigates communication errors.

Abstract

We revisit polarization rotation due to gravity, known as the gravitational Faraday effect, with a view on its role in quantum communications with Earth-orbiting satellites. In a static spherically symmetric gravitational field Faraday rotation is purely a reference frame (gauge) effect. This is so also in the leading post-Newtonian expansion of the Earth's gravitational field. However, establishing the local reference frame with respect to distant stars leads to the nonzero Faraday phase. In communications between a ground station and an Earth-orbiting spacecraft this phase is of the order of 10^-10. Under the same conditions the Wigner phase of special relativity is typically of the order 10^-4--10^-5. These phases lead to the physical lower bound on communication errors. However, both types of errors can be simultaneously mitigated. Moreover, they are countered by a fully reference frame independent scheme that also handles arbitrary misalignment between the reference frames of sender and receiver.