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The Corkscrew Effect

John P. Ralston, Pankaj Jain, Borge Nodland

astro-pharXiv:astro-ph/9707326

Abstract

We discuss a new mechanism which could cause a rotation of polarization of electromagnetic waves due to magnetic fields on cosmological scales. The effect is due to the geometrical phase of Pancharatnam and Berry, and causes a corkscrew twisting of the plane of polarization. The new effect represents an additional tool that allows possible intergalactic and cosmological magnetic fields to be studied using radio propagation.

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