Propagation of light in Schwarzschild geometry

In this paper, the equivalent medium of Schwarzschild metric is discussed. The corresponding ray-tracing equations are integrated for the equivalent medium of the Schwarzschild geometry, which describes the curved space around a spherically symmetric, irrotational, and uncharged blackhole. We make comparison to the well-known expression by Einstein. While Einstein's estimate is reasonably good for large closest distances of approach to the star, it disregards the optical anisotropy of space. Instead, Virbhadra's estimate which takes the effects of anisotropy of Schwarzschild metric is shown to be more consistent with numerical simulations. Hence, a true physical anisotropy in the velocity of light under gravitational field does exist. We argue that the existence of such an optical anisotropy could be revealed exactly in the same way that the optical interferometry is expected to detect gravitational waves. Therefore, if no optical anisotropy under gravitational fields could be observed, then the possibility of interferometric detection of gravitational waves is automatically ruled out, and vice versa.