The Corkscrew Effect

Abstract

We discuss a new mechanism which could cause a rotation of polarization of electromagnetic waves due to magnetic fields on cosmological scales. The effect is due to the geometrical phase of Pancharatnam and Berry, and causes a corkscrew twisting of the plane of polarization. The new effect represents an additional tool that allows possible intergalactic and cosmological magnetic fields to be studied using radio propagation.

Comments: 4 pages, ReVTeX, 1 GIF figure. Submitted to Physical Review Letters. For more information, please see http://www.cc.rochester.edu/college/rtc/Borge/aniso.html