Deflection of polarised radiation: relative phase delay technique

Abstract

THE weak equivalence principle states that the world line of a freely falling test particle is independent of its structure and composition. Until recently^1,2, experiments designed to detect variations in the geodesic motion of test particles of differing internal properties have been confined to particles of non-zero rest mass^3—5. The experiment discussed here applies the same question to photons by asking whether oppositely polarised photons fall at the same rate.