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Thomson scattering induced by gravitational waves

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Abstract

We investigate the effects of a weak gravitational wave, modelled as a gaussian wavepacket, on the polarization state of an electromagnetic field enclosed in a cavity. Our approach is semiclassical, in that the electromagnetic field is described as a quantum field, while the gravitational perturbation is treated classically, as a slightly curved background spacetime. Assuming that before the interaction the electromagnetic field has been prepared in a given polarization state, we show that – due to the gravitational scattering with the wave – some photons having different polarization states are found in the cavity at late times. Such polarization scattering has some resemblance with Thomson scattering, well-known in Quantum Electrodynamics: hence the motivation for the title. We give a numerical estimate of the resulting photon polarization spreading in the case of a typical gravitational burst from a final supernova rebound. We also briefly comment about the possible influence of such gravitational scattering on the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Padova, I-35131, Padova, Italy

    Francesco Sorge & Silvio Zilio

  2. I.N.F.N. Università di Padova, Padova, Italy

    Francesco Sorge & Silvio Zilio

Authors
  1. Francesco Sorge
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  2. Silvio Zilio
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Correspondence to Francesco Sorge.

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Sorge, F., Zilio, S. Thomson scattering induced by gravitational waves. Gen Relativ Gravit 37, 2105–2116 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-005-0198-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-005-0198-5

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