arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Eduardo Díaz-Miguel.
We give an optical physicist view of the problem of the trajectories in a polygonal billiard using only basic facts of Optics and the theory of functions of a complex variable. This approach allow us to stablish a certain correspondence between n-gon billiards and one-holed 2n-punctured tori. Therefore the existence of periodic trajectories in a certain polygon becomes the problem of the existence of closed geodesics in its associated torus.
We have derived the relationship between the radial proper distance, h, and the polar angle, phi, for a light ray that is emitted and travels in the neighborhood of the Earth's surface. General relativity predicts that, even locally, the equation which relates these two physical magnitudes differs from the one stated by the principle of equivalence. More precisely, we have proved that, in the weak field limit, the local physical trajectory, h=h(phi), is the one that would correspond to a massive Newtonian particle in a field two times greater. Therefore, and contrary to the generally accepted fact, the principle of equivalence gives only 1/2 part of the general relativity local deflection of light.