Inhomogeneous Vacuum: An Alternative Interpretation of Curved Spacetime

• 来源期刊: 中国物理快报（英文版）
• 年，卷（期）: 2008,（5）
• 页码范围: 1571-1574
• 页数: 4页
• 语种: 英文

摘要

The strong similarities between the light propagation in a curved spacetime and that in a medium with graded refractive index are found.It is pointed out that a curved spacetime is equivalent to an inhomogeneous vacuum for fight propagation.The corresponding graded refractive index of the vacuum in a static spherically symmetrical gravitational field is derived.This result provides a simple and convenient way to analyse the gravitational lensing in astrophysics.