Cosmological birefringence and the geometric phase of photons

Abstract

Regarding axion electrodynamics in the background flat FRW universe, we show that cosmological birefringence arises from an adiabatic noncyclic geometric phase that appears in the quantum state of photons because of their interaction with the axion field. We also show that the axion electrodynamics is equivalent to standard electrodynamics in time-dependent bi-isotropic magnetoelectric Tellegen media, which serves as an analogue system that can simulate cosmological birefringence.

Spin Hall effect of light in inhomogeneous axion field

“…Its well-known application is the prediction of polarization rotation effect (cosmological birefringence) [8][9][10] for linearly polarized light propagating over cosmological distances, most notably, for the CMB radiation (see, e.g., [11][12][13]). We have recently shown [14] that this polarization plane rotation arises from an adiabatic geometric phase that appears in the quantum state of photons interacting with the background axion field.…”