2009/02/11 by Raffaele Punzi, Frederic P. Schuller, Punzi, Raffaele +3
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0902.1811
11 pages, 1 figure
arxiv created 2009/02/11 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
We argue that the time measured by a light clock operating with photons rather than classical light requires a refinement of the standard clock postulate in general relativity. In the presence of a gravitational field, already the one-loop quantum corrections to classical Maxwell theory affect light propagation and the construction of observers' frames of reference. Carefully taking into account these kinematic effects, a concise geometric expression for the time shown by a light clock is obtained. This result has far-reaching implications for physics in strong gravitational fields.