Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
1779715 | New Astronomy | 2008 | 4 Pages |
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.
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Physical Sciences and Engineering
Physics and Astronomy
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Authors
Valerio Faraoni,