On elastic deformations of cylindrical bodies under the influence of the gravitational field

Author(s)
Hamed Barzegar, Piotr T. Chruściel, Florian Steininger
Abstract

Background: Large elastic deformations of gravitating cylindrical bodies play a significant role in everyday life. On the other hand, tiny such deformations are relevant for state-of-the art experiments, as they affect the physical properties of materials under consideration, impacting wave propagation. This is of key importance for a recently planned experiment to explore the influence of the gravitational field on entangled photons propagating in waveguides. The purpose of this work is to determine this influence. Methods: We use the methods of linear elasticity, including thermoelasticity, to determine the stresses and strains of the medium. For this, the symmetry of the cylinder allows us to solve the problem by using Mitchell’s solutions of the equations satisfied by the Airy functions. The boundary conditions are implemented by an approximation of the Hertz contact method. Results: We calculate the displacements, the stresses and strains for several classes of boundary conditions, and give explicit solutions for a number of physically motivated configurations. The influence of the resulting deformations on the planned GRAVITES experiment is determined. Conclusions: The results are relevant for fiber interferometry experiments sensitive to the effects of the gravitational field on photon propagation. Our calculations give stringent bounds on the environmental variables, which need to be controlled in such experiments.

Organisation(s)
Gravitational Physics
External organisation(s)
Université Claude-Bernard-Lyon-I
Journal
Open Research Europe
Volume
4
No. of pages
35
ISSN
2732-5121
DOI
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2401.16949
Publication date
09-2024
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
103028 Theory of relativity, 103025 Quantum mechanics
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
General
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/e1147faa-489d-4102-a8c1-83c28c9aade0