The rotation of polarization by gravitational waves
arXiv:0709.0386 · doi:10.1016/j.newast.2007.08.005
Abstract
There are conflicting statements in the literature about the gravitational Faraday rotation of the plane of polarization of polarized electromagnetic radiation travelling through a gravitational wave. This issue is reconsidered using a simple formalism describing the rotation of the plane of polarization in a gravitational field, in the geometric optics approximation. It is shown that, to first order in the gravitational wave amplitude, the rotation angle is a boundary effect which vanishes for localized (astrophysically generated) gravitational waves and is non-zero, but nevertheless negligible, for cosmological gravitational waves.
11 pages, latex, to appear in New Astronomy