The Deviation of the Vacuum Refractive Index Induced by a Static Gravitational Field

Abstract

We analyzed the influence of static gravitational field on the vacuum and proposed the concept of inhomogeneous vacuum. According to the observational result of the light deflection in solar gravitational field as well as the corresponding Fermat's principle in the general relativity, we derived an analytical expression of the refractive index of vacuum in a static gravitational field. We found that the deviation of the vacuum refractive index is composed of two parts: one is caused by the time dilation effect, the other is caused by the length contraction effect. As an application, we simulated the effect of the gravitational lensing through computer programming and found that the missing central imaging could be interpreted in a reasonable way.