Photonic spin Hall effect from quantum kinetic theory in curved spacetime

TL;DR

This paper develops a quantum kinetic theory for polarized photons in curved spacetime, revealing photonic spin Hall effects and their relation to vortical effects, with implications for understanding photon transport in gravitational fields.

Contribution

It introduces a covariant quantum kinetic framework for polarized photons in curved spacetime and derives photonic spin Hall and vortical effects from first principles.

Findings

Photonic spin Hall effect derived in curved spacetime.

Photonic vortical and spin Hall effects are related via Lorentz invariance.

Transport coefficients for these effects are shown to match.

Abstract

Based on quantum field theory, we formulate the Wigner function and quantum kinetic theory for polarized photons in curved spacetimes which admit a covariantly constant timelike vector. From this framework, the photonic chiral/zilch vortical effects are reproduced in a rigidly rotating coordinate. In a spatially inhomogeneous coordinate, we derive the spin Hall effect for the photon helicity current and energy current in equilibrium. Our derivation reveals that such photonic Hall effect are related to the photonic vortical effect via the Lorentz invariance and their transport coefficients match each other.