Fermat principle for spinning light

2005/09/30 by Christian Duval, C. Duval, Z. Horvȧth +3 · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Mechanical and Optical Resonators #Orbital Angular Momentum in Optics #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #cond-mat.mes-hall #gr-qc #hep-th #physics.optics

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.74.021701

published as Phys.Rev. D74 (2006) 021701 · Final revised version, to appear in Phys. Rev. D (Rapid Communication). 5 pages, no figures

arxiv created 2006/06/15 · openalex publication_date 2006/07/07 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

Mimicking the description of spinning particles in General Relativity, the Fermat Principle is extended to spinning photons. Linearization of the resulting Papapetrou-Souriau type equations yields the semiclassical model used recently to derive the ``Optical Hall Effect'' for polarized light (alias the ``Optical Magnus Effect'').

Citations

• Modified geometrical optics of a smoothly inhomogeneous isotropic medium: The anisotropy, Berry phase, and the optical Magnus effect
• THE ELECTRODYNAMICS OF SUBSTANCES WITH SIMULTANEOUSLY NEGATIVE VALUES OF ε AND μ
• Spinning test-particles in general relativity. I
• Dissipationless Quantum Spin Current at Room Temperature
• What are the left-handed media and what is interesting about them?

Cited by

• Semiclassical diagonalization of quantum Hamiltonian and equations of motion with Berry phase corrections
• Geometrodynamics of spinning light
• Spin-Orbit Coupling in Helical Waveguides: A Local Duality Perspective and Emergent Gauge Fields