Optical solitons in curved spacetime

authored by: Felix Spengler, Alessio Belenchia, Dennis Rätzel, Daniel Braun
Abstract: Light propagation in curved spacetime is at the basis of some of the most stringent tests of Einstein’s general relativity. At the same time, light propagation in media is at the basis of several communication systems. Given the ubiquity of the gravitational field, and the exquisite level of sensitivity of optical measurements, the time is ripe for investigations combining these two aspects and studying light propagation in media located in curved spacetime. In this work, we focus on the effect of a weak gravitational field on the propagation of optical solitons in non-linear optical media. We derive a non-linear Schrödinger equation describing the propagation of an optical pulse in an effective, gradient-index medium in flat spacetime, encoding both the material properties and curved spacetime effects. In analyzing the special case of propagation in a 1D optical fiber, we also include the effect of mechanical deformations and show it to be the dominant effect for a fiber oriented in the radial direction in Schwarzschild spacetime.
External Organisation(s): University of Tübingen
Queen's University Belfast
Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM)
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU Berlin)
Type: Article
Journal: Classical and quantum gravity
Volume: 40
Pages: 145008
No. of pages: 1
ISSN: 1361-6382
Publication date: 01.06.2023
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6382/acdd43 (Access: Unknown)

BibTeX

@article{8c5bc54748c14c9fb5c9be2bfb46ab58,
title = "Optical solitons in curved spacetime",
abstract = "Light propagation in curved spacetime is at the basis of some of the most stringent tests of Einstein{\textquoteright}s general relativity. At the same time, light propagation in media is at the basis of several communication systems. Given the ubiquity of the gravitational field, and the exquisite level of sensitivity of optical measurements, the time is ripe for investigations combining these two aspects and studying light propagation in media located in curved spacetime. In this work, we focus on the effect of a weak gravitational field on the propagation of optical solitons in non-linear optical media. We derive a non-linear Schr{\"o}dinger equation describing the propagation of an optical pulse in an effective, gradient-index medium in flat spacetime, encoding both the material properties and curved spacetime effects. In analyzing the special case of propagation in a 1D optical fiber, we also include the effect of mechanical deformations and show it to be the dominant effect for a fiber oriented in the radial direction in Schwarzschild spacetime.",
keywords = "curved spacetime, non-linear media, optical solitons",
author = "Felix Spengler and Alessio Belenchia and Dennis R{\"a}tzel and Daniel Braun",
note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2023 IOP Publishing Ltd.",
year = "2023",
month = jun,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1088/1361-6382/acdd43",
language = "English",
volume = "40",
pages = "145008",
journal = "Classical and quantum gravity",
issn = "1361-6382",
publisher = "IOP Publishing Ltd.",
number = "14",
}