Gravitational-wave–induced rotation of the plane of polarization of pulsar signals

Physical Research Laboratory - Navrangpura, Ahmedabad 380 009, India

Received: 16 April 2002
Accepted: 12 September 2002

Abstract

We derive in this letter an expression for the rotation of plane of polarization, of an electromagnetic wave, induced by the field of a gravitational wave propagating along the same direction , ω and Ω being their respective frequencies, using the geometrical optics limit of the wave equation for fields. Estimating the effect for the case of pulses from binary pulsars, one finds it too small to be observable. However, there could be other sources like inspiralling binary or an asymmetric neutron star where the effect could be in the observable region.