TOPOLOGICAL PHASES AND THEIR DUALITY IN ELECTROMAGNETIC AND GRAVITATIONAL FIELDS

Abstract

The duality found by Aharonov and Casher for topological phases in the electromagnetic field is generalized to an arbitrary linear interaction. This provides a heuristic principle for obtaining a new solution of the field equations from a known solution. This is applied to the general relativistic Sagnac phase shift due to the gravitational field in the interference of mass or energy around a line source that has angular momentum and the dual phase shift in the interference of a spin around a line mass. These topological phases are treated both in the linearized limit of general relativity and the exact solutions for which the gravitational sources are cosmic strings containing torsion and curvature, which do not have a Newtonian limit.