Rest frame interference in rotating structures and metamaterials

Abstract: Using the formulation of electrodynamics in rotating media, we put into explicit quantitative form the effect of rotation on interference and diffraction patterns as observed in the rotating medium's rest-frame. As a paradigm experiment we focus the interference generated by a linear array of sources in a homogeneous medium. The interference is distorted due to rotation; the maxima now follow curved trajectories. Unlike the classical Sagnac effect in which the rotation induced phase is independent of the refraction index $n$, here the maxima bending increases when $n$ decreases, suggesting that $\epsilon$-near-zero metamaterials can enhance optical gyroscopes and rotation-induced non-reciprocal devices. This result is counter intuitive as one may expect that a wave that travels faster would bend less. The apparent contradiction is clarified via the Minkowski momentum picture for a quasi-particle model of the interference that introduces the action of a Coriolis force, and by the Abraham picture of the wave-only momentum. our results may also shed light on the Abraham-Minkowski controversy as examined in non-inertial electrodynamics.