Gravitational red-shift and deflection of slow light

Abstract

We explore the nature of the classical propagation of light through media with strong frequency-dependent dispersion in the presence of a gravitational field. In the weak field limit, gravity causes a redshift of the optical frequency, which the slow-light medium converts into a spatially-varying index of refraction. This results in the bending of a light ray in the medium. We further propose experimental techniques to amplify and detect the phenomenon using weak value measurements. Independent heuristic and rigorous derivations of this effect are given.

9 pages, 1 figure

References in corpus (5)

• Quantum weak values
• Weak values and the Leggett-Garg inequality in solid-state qubits
• Low-distortion slow light using two absorption resonances
• Experimental feasibility of measuring the gravitational redshift of light using dispersion in optical fibers
• Deflection of Ultra Slow Light by Earth Gravity on Laboratory Length Scale

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Frequency-dependent effects of gravitational lensing within plasma
• Gravitational lensing in a non-uniform plasma
• Gravitational and Relativistic Deflection of X-Ray Superradiance
• Slow light in flight imaging
• Planck scale displacement of a connected mirror pair: an energy measurement in a gravitational field