Finsler Spinoptics

Abstract

The objective of this article is to build up a general theory of geometrical optics for spinning light rays in an inhomogeneous and anisotropic medium modeled on a Finsler manifold. The prerequisites of local Finsler geometry are reviewed together with the main properties of the Cartan connection used in this work. Then, the principles of Finslerian spinoptics are formulated on the grounds of previous work on Riemannian spinoptics, and relying on the generic coadjoint orbits of the Euclidean group. A new presymplectic structure on the indicatrix-bundle is introduced, which gives rise to a foliation that significantly departs from that generated by the geodesic spray, and leads to a specific anomalous velocity, due to the coupling of spin and the Cartan curvature, and related to the optical Hall effect.

LaTeX, 40 pages. Introductory Sections 1 and 2 substantially shortened, conceptual rectification in Section 3, and one Reference added. To appear in Communications in Mathematical Physics

References in corpus (3)

• Conservation of Angular Momentum, Transverse Shift, and Spin Hall Effect in Reflection and Refraction of Electromagnetic Wave Packet
• Modified geometrical optics of a smoothly inhomogeneous isotropic medium: the anisotropy, Berry phase, and the optical Magnus effect
• Non-Abelian evolution of electromagnetic waves in a weakly anisotropic inhomogeneous medium