Effective spacetime description of light propagation in linear magnetoelectric media

TL;DR

This paper employs an effective spacetime framework to analyze light propagation in linear magnetoelectric media, revealing conditions for one-way propagation regions analogous to event horizons, thus bridging optics and gravitational analogies.

Contribution

It introduces a method to derive an effective metric for linear magnetoelectric materials and demonstrates the formation of one-way propagation regions similar to event horizons.

Findings

Effective metric can be constructed for these media.

One-way propagation regions analogous to event horizons can be established.

The approach bridges gravitational analogies with optical phenomena.

Abstract

Formal analogies between gravitational and optical phenomena have been explored for over a century, providing valuable insights into kinematic aspects of general relativity. Here, this analogy is employed to study light propagation in linear magnetoelectric media from an effective spacetime perspective. Starting from Maxwell's equations in covariant form, it is shown that an effective metric can always be identified for linear, non-dispersive magnetoelectric materials. The effective metric is then used to construct analog models in the limit of geometric optics. Among the optical effects analyzed, it is shown that under reasonable assumptions on the magnitude of the magnetoelectric response, a one-way propagation region can be established, which behaves analogously to an event horizon.