FLNP Seminar

03-19-2026 15:00 Conference hall, bldg. 42а, 3rd floor and remotely

"Equivalence Principle and Acceleration effect in optics"

A.I. Frank

Several years ago, it was shown that one of the consequences of the fundamental Equivalence Principle is the so-called Acceleration Effect. According to this effect, any object that scatters a wave or transmits a narrowband signal inevitably changes the wave's frequency if it is moving with acceleration. The frequency shift is then determined by the relation Δω=kaΔτ, where k is the wave number, a is the acceleration, and Δτ is the time delay introduced by the object when transmitting the signal. The simplest manifestation of the acceleration effect is the case of signal retransmission by a transceiver moving with acceleration. In microphysics, the Acceleration Effect should manifest itself, for example, when a wave passes through a refracting sample moving with acceleration or when a particle is scattered by an accelerating object. So far, the Acceleration Effect has been observed only in neutron optics, and two of the three existing experiments were carried out by the FLNP-ILL group. The report will discuss the possibility of setting up an experiment to demonstrate the Acceleration Effect in optics. The connection of the Acceleration Effect with the equivalence principle means that the proposed experiment will test the validity of the equivalence principle in a new phenomenon.