Quantum Gravitational Optics

Abstract

In quantum theory, the curved spacetime of Einstein's general theory of relativity acts as a dispersive optical medium for the propagation of light. Gravitational rainbows and birefringence replace the classical picture of light rays mapping out the null geodesics of curved spacetime. Even more remarkably, {\it superluminal} propagation becomes a real possibility, raising the question of whether it is possible to send signals into the past. In this article, we review recent developments in the quantum theory of light propagation in general relativity and discuss whether superluminal light is compatible with causality.

28 pages, 5 figures. Review article commissioned by `Contemporary Physics'

Cited by in corpus (56)

• Gravity, Lorentz Violation, and the Standard Model
• Quantum Spacetime Phenomenology
• Spontaneous Lorentz Violation, Nambu-Goldstone Modes, and Gravity
• Lorentz-Violating Electrostatics and Magnetostatics
• Derivation of a Vacuum Refractive Index in a Stringy Space-Time Foam Model
• The Cherenkov effect in Lorentz-violating vacua
• Lorentz Violation and Short-Baseline Neutrino Experiments
• Dirac theory within the Standard-Model Extension
• Strong Equivalence, Lorentz and CPT Violation, Anti-Hydrogen Spectroscopy and Gamma-Ray Burst Polarimetry
• Superluminality and UV Completion
• Weyl corrections to holographic conductivity
• The Refractive Index of Curved Spacetime: the Fate of Causality in QED
• Bare and Induced Lorentz and CPT Invariance Violations in QED
• The Causal Structure of QED in Curved Spacetime: Analyticity and the Refractive Index
• On the consistency of Lorentz invariance violation in QED induced by fermions in constant axial-vector background
• Probing Lorentz violation with Doppler-shift experiments
• Conformal Anomalies and the Gravitational Effective Action: The $TJJ$ Correlator for a Dirac Fermion
• Causality and Micro-Causality in Curved Spacetime
• Generalized Galileon Duality
• Asymptotic states and renormalization in Lorentz-violating quantum field theory
• One-loop corrections to the photon propagator in the curved-space QED
• Superluminality, Black Holes and Effective Field Theory
• String Quantum Gravity, Lorentz-Invariance Violation and Gamma-Ray Astronomy
• Microcausality in Curved Space-Time
• Anomaly Poles as Common Signatures of Chiral and Conformal Anomalies
• Quantum field theory based on birefringent modified Maxwell theory
• The Refractive Index of Curved Spacetime II: QED, Penrose Limits and Black Holes
• Propagation in a thermal graviton background
• Causality in 3D Massive Gravity Theories
• Bose-Einstein Condensates as a Probe for Lorentz Violation
• Decoherence and CPT Violation in a Stringy Model of Space-Time Foam
• The Effect of Gravitational Tidal Forces on Renormalized Quantum Fields
• Exploring Special Relative Locality with deSitter momentum-space
• General Relativity from Causality
• Tests of Lorentz Violation in Atomic and Optical Physics
• Quantum gravitational optics: Effective Raychaudhuri equation
• Implications of minimum-length deformed quantum mechanics for QFT/QG
• Propagation of photons and massive vector mesons between a parity breaking medium and vacuum
• Large-scale optical interferometry in general spacetimes
• Quantum gravitational optics: the induced phase
• High-Energy gamma-ray Astronomy and String Theory
• Comparison of QG-Induced Dispersion with Standard Physics Effects
• Minimum length, extra dimensions, modified gravity and black hole remnants
• Non-minimally coupled electromagnetic fields and observable implications for primordial black holes
• Quasiparticle excitations in relativistic quantum field theory
• Stellar matter with pseudoscalar condensates
• Fermat's principle in quantum gravitational optics
• Revisiting Varying Speed of Light in Cosmology: Insights from the Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker Metric
• Electric Charge Screening By Non-Minimal Couplings Of Electromagnetic Fields To Gravity
• Solar System Constraints on Light Propagation from Higher Derivative Corrections to General Relativity and Implications for Fundamental Physics
• Vacuum polarization in Siklos spacetimes
• Quantum Brownian representation for the quantum field modes
• Graviton Propagation and Vacuum Polarization in Curved Space
• Quantum gravitational optics in the field of a gravitomagnetic monopole
• Parity Breaking Medium and Squeeze Operators
• Non-Minimally Coupled Einstein-Yang-Mills Field Equations and Wu-Yang Monopoles in Bertotti-Robinson Spacetimes