Spin Hall effects in the sky

Author(s)
Lars Andersson, Marius Adrian Oancea
Abstract

In many areas of physics, the propagation of wave packets carrying intrinsic angular momentum is generally influenced by spin–orbit interactions. This is the main mechanism behind spin Hall effects, which result in wave packets following spin-dependent trajectories. Spin Hall effects have been observed in several experiments for electrons in condensed matter systems and for light propagating in inhomogeneous optical media. Similar effects have also been predicted for wave packets propagating in inhomogeneous gravitational fields. We give a brief introduction to gravitational spin Hall effects, emphasizing the analogies with the spin Hall effect of light in optics. Furthermore, we review the most promising astrophysical avenues that could lead to experimental observations of the gravitational spin Hall effect.

Organisation(s)
Gravitational Physics
External organisation(s)
Beijing Institute for Mathematical Sciences and Applications BIMSA
Journal
Classical and Quantum Gravity
Volume
40
No. of pages
25
ISSN
0264-9381
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6382/ace021
Publication date
07-2023
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
103036 Theoretical physics
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/spin-hall-effects-in-the-sky(14897919-55f1-4e9d-9645-19f430c2037f).html