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Spin Hall effect of gravitational waves

Naoki Yamamoto
Phys. Rev. D 98, 061701(R) – Published 19 September 2018

Abstract

Gravitons possess a Berry curvature due to their helicity. We derive the semiclassical equations of motion for gravitons taking into account the Berry curvature. We show that this quantum correction leads to the splitting of the trajectories of right- and left-handed gravitational waves in curved space, and that this correction can be understood as a topological phenomenon. This is the spin Hall effect (SHE) of gravitational waves. We find that the SHE of gravitational waves is twice as large as that of light. Possible future observations of the SHE of gravitational waves can potentially test the quantum nature of gravitons beyond the classical general relativity.

  • Received 24 August 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.98.061701

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied PhysicsGravitation, Cosmology & Astrophysics

Authors & Affiliations

Naoki Yamamoto

  • Department of Physics, Keio University, Yokohama 223-8522, Japan

Article Text

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Issue

Vol. 98, Iss. 6 — 15 September 2018

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