'Faster than light' photons and charged black holes

Aug, 1993
17 pages
Published in:
  • Nucl.Phys.B 425 (1994) 634-650
e-Print:
Report number:
  • SWAT-93-9,
  • UGVA-DPT-1993-08-830

Citations per year

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Abstract:
Photons propagating in curved spacetime may, depending on their direction and polarisation, have velocities exceeding the ``speed of light'' c. This phenomenon arises through vacuum polarisation in QED and is a tidal gravitational effect depending on the local curvature. It implies that the Principle of Equivalence does not hold for interacting quantum field theories in curved spacetime and reflects a quantum violation of local Lorentz invariance. These results are illustrated for the propagation of photons in the Reissner-Nordstr\"om spacetime characterising a charged black hole. A general analysis of electromagnetic as well as gravitational birefringence is presented.
  • photon: propagator
  • space-time
  • photon: velocity
  • postulated particle: tachyon
  • quantum electrodynamics
  • vacuum polarization
  • gravitation: effect
  • relativity theory: equivalence principle
  • black hole
  • effective action