How Does Snell's Law Change in Curved Spacetime?

blumfeld0
Messages
146
Reaction score
0
Ever since I took GR I have always been interested in how snell's law changes, if it changes at all, in curved spacetime.
The index of refraction depends on the optical density of the medium and this would be observer dependent? am i right on that?
i would love to see a paper or other online reference where snells law is derived in GR. i.e in the strong field relativistic limit.

or maybe it doesn't change at all? it just stays n1 sin[x1 ] = n2 sin[x2]

like P = number density* boltzmann's constant *Temperature holds relativistically and non-relativistically as I recall.

thanks!
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Last edited by a moderator:
OK, so this has bugged me for a while about the equivalence principle and the black hole information paradox. If black holes "evaporate" via Hawking radiation, then they cannot exist forever. So, from my external perspective, watching the person fall in, they slow down, freeze, and redshift to "nothing," but never cross the event horizon. Does the equivalence principle say my perspective is valid? If it does, is it possible that that person really never crossed the event horizon? The...
ASSUMPTIONS 1. Two identical clocks A and B in the same inertial frame are stationary relative to each other a fixed distance L apart. Time passes at the same rate for both. 2. Both clocks are able to send/receive light signals and to write/read the send/receive times into signals. 3. The speed of light is anisotropic. METHOD 1. At time t[A1] and time t[B1], clock A sends a light signal to clock B. The clock B time is unknown to A. 2. Clock B receives the signal from A at time t[B2] and...
In this video I can see a person walking around lines of curvature on a sphere with an arrow strapped to his waist. His task is to keep the arrow pointed in the same direction How does he do this ? Does he use a reference point like the stars? (that only move very slowly) If that is how he keeps the arrow pointing in the same direction, is that equivalent to saying that he orients the arrow wrt the 3d space that the sphere is embedded in? So ,although one refers to intrinsic curvature...

Similar threads

Back
Top