'Faster than light' photons and charged black holes
Aug, 199317 pages
Published in:
- Nucl.Phys.B 425 (1994) 634-650
e-Print:
- hep-th/9310114 [hep-th]
Report number:
- SWAT-93-9,
- UGVA-DPT-1993-08-830
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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
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