Rotation of polarization by a moving gravitational lens

Abstract

We present a simple prescription for the rotation of polarization produced by a relativistically moving gravitational lens, applicable to arbitrary deflection angle and arbitrary velocity of the lens. When geometric optics is applicable, two independent components contribute to the total rotation of polarization: (i) in the frame of the lens the polarization vector experiences minimal rotation defined by the deflection angle (as measured by a set of remote observers, or no rotation if defined in terms of parallel-propagated tetrad); (ii) the effect of the motion of the lens on the polarization can be taken into account exactly using special relativistic Lorentz transformation of polarization. The effects of the gravitational lensing are thus parametrized by the deflection angle of the null geodesics (not necessarily small) and the motion of the lens (not necessarily with velocities much smaller than that of light).

References in corpus (3)

• Shapiro delay measurement of a two solar mass neutron star
• A simple derivation of the Lorentz transformation and of the related velocity and acceleration formulae
• Gravitational rotation of polarization: Clarifying the gauge dependence and prediction for double pulsar

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Relativistic rotating vector model for X-ray millisecond pulsars
• Searching for axion-like particles under strong gravitational lenses
• Rotation of polarization in the gravitational field of a laser beam - Faraday effect and optical activity
• Distinguishing gravity theories with networks of space-based gravitational-wave detectors