Spin, acceleration and gravity

Abstract

The massless field perturbations of the accelerating Minkowski and Schwarzschild spacetimes are studied. The results are extended to the propagation of the Proca field in Rindler spacetime. We examine critically the possibility of existence of a general spin-acceleration coupling in complete analogy with the well-known spin-rotation coupling. We argue that such a direct coupling between spin and linear acceleration does not exist.

Spin and Maximal Acceleration

“…The non vanishing components ∂ ρ S ρ01 and ∂ ρ S ρ02 of the spin current tensor refer to the motion of the particle as a whole and are present whatever the nature of the acceleration. Even in the case of MA, uniform acceleration produces no observable effects on the particle spin, in agreement with [100]. These results are independent of any model for f and provide a stringent limit on the the astrophysical applications of spin physics, even in the case of MA.…”

“…In fact, no interchange is possible for a strictly uniform acceleration [100]. The interchange can take place for any value of the acceleration for 0 < f < 1.…”

Spin precession in inertial and gravitational fields

“…It is curious, however, that it does work for the case of rotation [12]. This is due to the fact that for a general noninertial observer, spin does not couple in the same way to an observer's translational acceleration (i.e., 4-acceleration) and the rotation of its spatial frame; in particular, there is no direct analog of the spin-rotation coupling in the case of translational acceleration [13].…”

Spinning test particles in Weyl spacetimes

“…This can be done by evaluating the derivatives along U of the relative velocities unit vectors Deφ 16) which, in the spacetime metric under consideration (only), both belong to the (ρ, z) plane, and define in turn the centripetal acceleration Deφ…”

“…Recent claims concerning the various couplings between spin and rotation [15], spin and acceleration [16] have started new interest and motivated further investigations from both theoretical and experimental point of view.…”