Deflection of charged signals in a dipole magnetic field in a Schwarzschild background using the Gauss-Bonnet theorem

Abstract

This paper studies the deflection of charged particles in a dipole magnetic field in Schwarzschild spacetime background in the weak field approximation. To calculate the deflection angle, we use Jacobi metric and Gauss-Bonnet theorem. Since the corresponding Jacobi metric is a Finsler metric of Randers type, we use both the osculating Riemannian metric method and generalized Jacobi metric method. The deflection angle up to fourth order is obtained and the effect of the magnetic field is discussed. It is found that the magnetic dipole will increase (or decrease) the deflection angle of a positively charged signal when its rotation angular momentum is parallel (or antiparallel) to the magnetic field. It is argued that the difference in the deflection angles of different rotation directions can be viewed as a Finslerian effect of the nonreversibility of the Finsler metric. The similarity of the deflection angle in this case with that for the Kerr spacetime allows us to directly use the gravitational lensing results in the latter case. The dependence of the apparent angles on the magnetic field suggests that by measuring these angles the magnetic dipole might be constrained.