Abstract: The ideal magnetohydrodynamic theorem on the conservation of the magnetic connections between plasma elements is generalized to relativistic plasmas in curved spacetime. The connections between plasma elements, which are established by a covariant connection equation, display a particularly complex structure in curved spacetime. Nevertheless, it is shown that these connections can be interpreted in terms of magnetic field lines alone by adopting a 3 + 1 foliation of spacetime.

Abstract: We analytically explore the effects of the gravitational electromotive force on magnetic reconnection around Schwarzschild black holes through a generalized general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamic model that retains two-fluid effects. It is shown that the gravitational electromotive force can couple to collisionless two-fluid effects and drive magnetic reconnection. This is allowed by the departure from quasineutrality in curved spacetime, which is explicitly manifested as the emergence of an effective resistivity in Ohm's law. The departure from quasineutrality is owed to different gravitational pulls experienced by separate parts of the current layer. This produces an enhancement of the reconnecion rate due to purely gravitational effects.

Abstract: A new approach to tackle Einstein equations for an isotropic and homogeneous Friedmann-Robertson-Walker Universe in the presence of a quintessence scalar field is devised. It provides a way to get a simple exact solution to these equations. This solution determines the quintessence potential uniquely and it differs from solutions which have been used to study inflation previously. It relays on a unification of geometry and dark matter implemented through the definition of a functional relation between the scale factor of the Universe and the quintessence field. For a positive curvature Universe, this solution produces perpetual accelerated expansion rate of the Universe, while the Hubble parameter increases abruptly, attains a maximum value and decreases thereafter. The behavior of this cosmological solution is discussed and its main features are displayed. The formalism is extended to include matter and radiation.

Abstract: The massless Klein-Gordon equation on arbitrary curved backgrounds allows for solutions which develop “tails” inside the light cone and, therefore, do not strictly follow null geodesics as discovered by DeWitt and Brehme almost 60 years ago. A modification of the massless Klein-Gordon equation is presented, which always exhibits null geodesic propagation of waves on arbitrary curved space-times. This new equation is derived from a Lagrangian which exhibits current-current interaction. Its non-linearity is due to a self-coupling term which is related to the quantum mechanical Bohm potential.

Abstract: Electromagnetic waves propagation on either rotating or anisotropic spacetime backgrounds (such as Kerr and Gödel metrics, or Bianchi�I metric) produce a reduction of the magnitude of Casimir forces between plates. These
curved spacetimes behave as chiral or birefringent materials producing dispersion of electromagnetic waves, in such a way that right� and left�circularly polarized light waves propagate with different phase velocities. Results are explicitly calculated for discussed cases. The difference on the wavevectors of the two polarized electromagnetic waves produces an abatement of a Casimir force which depends on the interaction between the polarization of electromagnetic
waves and the properties of the spacetime.

Abstract: It is proved that accelerating nondiffracting gravitational Airy wave-packets are solutions of linearized gravity. It is also showed that Airy functions are exact solutions to Einstein equations for non-accelerating nondiffracting gravitational wave-packets.

Abstract: It is showed that complex scalar fields with a self-interaction potential may propagate along null geodesics on isotropic flat Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker universes with different time-dependent scale factors. This effect appears for certain kinds of self-interactions only, for different forms of potentials, and even for the massive case.

Abstract: Using a generally covariant electrovortic (magnetofluid) formalism for relativistic plasmas, the dynamical evolution of a generalized vorticity (a combination of the magnetic and kinematic parts) is studied in a cosmological context. We derive macroscopic vorticity and magnetic field structures that can emerge in spatial equilibrium configurations of the relativistic plasma. These fields, however, evolve in time. These magnetic and velocity fields, self-consistently sustained in a plasma with arbitrary thermodynamics, constitute a diamagnetic state in the expanding universe. In particular, we explore a special class of magnetic and velocity field structures supported by a plasma in which the generalized vorticity vanishes. We derive a highly interesting characteristic of such “superconductor-like” fields in a cosmological plasmas in the radiation era in the early universe. In that case, the fields grow proportional to the scale factor, establishing a deep connection between the expanding universe and the primordial magnetic fields.

Abstract: When magnetic monopoles are assumed to exist in plasma dynamics, the propagation of electromagnetic waves is modified as Maxwell equations acquire a symmetrical structure due to the existence of electric and magnetic charge and current densities. This work presents a theoretical exploration on how far we can push the limits of a plasma theory under the presence of magnetic monopoles. In particular, we study the modification of ponderomotive forces in a plasma composed by electric and magnetic charges. We show that the general ponderomotive force on this plasma depends non-trivially on the magnetic monopoles, through the slow temporal and spatial variations of the electromagnetic field amplitudes. The magnetic charges introduce corrections even if the plasma is unmagnetized. Also, it is shown that the magnetic monopoles also experience a ponderomotive force due to the electrons. This force is in the direction of propagation of the electromagnetic waves.

Abstract: In the last ten years, the technology of differential geometry, ubiquitous in gravitational physics, has found its place in the field of optics. It has been successfully used in the design of optical metamaterials through a technique now known as “transformation optics.” This method, however, only applies for the particular class of metamaterials known as impedance matched, that is, materials whose electric permittivity is equal to their magnetic permeability. In that case, the material may be described by a spacetime metric. In the present work we will introduce a generalization of the geometric methods of transformation optics to situations in which the material is not impedance matched. In such situations, the material -or more precisely, its constitutive tensor-will not be described by a metric only. We bring in a second tensor, with the local symmetries of the Weyl tensor, the “W-tensor.” In the geometric optics approximation we show how the properties of the W-tensor are related to the asymmetric transmission of the material. We apply this feature to the design of a particularly interesting set of asymmetric materials. These materials are birefringent when light rays approach the material in a given direction, but behave just like vacuum when the rays have the opposite direction with the appropriate polarization (or, in some cases, independently of the polarization). (C) 2017 Optical Society of America