Accelerating Photons with Gravitational Radiation
G.M. Shore
TL;DR
This paper explores how gravitational radiation can accelerate photons beyond the speed of light in certain effective theories that include quantum effects like vacuum polarization, affecting light propagation in curved spacetime.
Contribution
It analyzes superluminal photon propagation in gravitational fields with quantum interactions that violate the strong equivalence principle, linking it to the Peeling Theorem in Bondi-Sachs spacetime.
Findings
Photon propagation can be superluminal in certain gravitational fields.
Quantum effects like vacuum polarization influence light speed.
The light-cone structure is modified by gravitational radiation.
Abstract
The nature of superluminal photon propagation in the gravitational field describing radiation from a time-dependent, isolated source (the Bondi-Sachs metric) is considered in an effective theory which includes interactions which violate the strong equivalence principle. Such interactions are, for example, generated by vacuum polarisation in conventional QED in curved spacetime. The relation of the resulting light-cone modifications to the Peeling Theorem for the Bondi-Sachs spacetime is explained.
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