Particle dynamics and deviation effects in the field of a strong electromagnetic wave

Abstract

Some strong field effects on test particle motion associated with the propagation of a plane electromagnetic wave in the exact theory of general relativity are investigated. Two different profiles of the associated radiation flux are considered in comparison, corresponding to either constant or oscillating electric and magnetic fields with respect to a natural family of observers. These are the most common situations to be experimentally explored, and have a well known counterpart in the flat spacetime limit. The resulting line elements are determined by a single metric function, which turns out to be expressed in terms of standard trigonometric functions in the case of a constant radiation flux, and in terms of special functions in the case of oscillating flux, leading to different features of test particle motion. The world line deviation between both uncharged and charged particles on different spacetime trajectories due to the combined effect of gravitational and electromagnetic forces is studied. The interaction of charged particles with the background radiation field is also discussed through a general relativistic description of the inverse Compton effect. Motion as well as deviation effects on particles endowed with spin are studied too. Special situations may occur in which the direction of the spin vector change during the interaction, leading to obsevables effects like spin-flip.

Peculiar velocities in dynamic spacetimes

“…Thus when q = 0, we recover the geodesic equations of motion as would be expected from the analysis of the previous section. It is interesting to mention here that certain other physical aspects of this Einstein-Maxwell field, such as the motion of spinning test particles, have recently received attention [16][17][18].…”

On the energy content of electromagnetic and gravitational plane waves through super-energy tensors

“…A short review of main definitions and basic features of Mathieu functions is given in Appendix B of Ref. [43], to which we also refer for notation and conventions. Solving Eq.…”

“…which represents a Mathieu's differential equation. A short review of main definitions and basic features of Mathieu functions is given in appendix B of [43], to which we also refer for notation and conventions. Solving equation (3.24) with initial conditions H(0) = 1 and H (0) = 0 yields…”