Analog of the Fizeau Effect in an Effective Optical Medium

TL;DR

This paper introduces an analog of the Fizeau effect within an effective optical medium influenced by gravity, revealing wavelength-independent drag coefficients and connecting gravitational effects with optical phenomena.

Contribution

It presents a novel approach to modeling the Fizeau effect in a gravitationally derived optical medium, including new calculations of Fresnel drag coefficients and their interpretations.

Findings

Fresnel drag coefficients derived for the effective medium

Coefficients become wavelength-independent in certain cases

Results complement recent studies on optical black holes

Abstract

Using a new approach, we propose an analog of the Fizeau effect for massive and massless particles in an effective optical medium derived from the static, spherically symmetric gravitational field. The medium is naturally perceived as a dispersive medium by matter de Broglie waves. Several Fresnel drag coefficients are worked out, with appropriate interpretations of the wavelengths used. In two cases, it turns out that the coefficients become independent of the wavelength even if the equivalent medium itself is dispersive. A few conceptual issues are also addressed in the process of derivation. It is shown that some of our results complement recent works dealing with real fluid or optical black holes.