2009/02/09 by Paul M. Alsing, P. M. Alsing, Alsing, P. M. +3 · 1 citation
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #FOS: Physical sciences #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #Geophysics and Sensor Technology #Quantum Physics (quant-ph) #Relativity and Gravitational Theory #gr-qc #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0902.1399
15 pages (two column), 4 figures
arxiv created 2009/02/09 · openalex publication_date 2009/02/09 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We investigate the Wigner rotation for photons, which governs the change in the polarization of the photon as it propagates through an arbitrary gravitational field. We give explicit examples in Schwarzschild spacetime, and compare with the corresponding flat spacetime results, which by the equivalence principle, holds locally at each spacetime point. We discuss the implications of the Wigner rotation for entangled photon states in curved spacetime, and lastly develop a sufficient condition for special (Fermi-Walker) frames in which the observer would detect no Wigner rotation.