{
  "abstract": "We investigate the impact of higher-curvature corrections on photon propagation within an effective field theory framework and their observational consequences in strong gravitational fields. We consider polarization-dependent modifications to photon trajectories in static and spherically symmetric spacetimes, focusing on Schwarzschild and Reissner--Nordström black hole backgrounds. Using the geometrical optics approximation, we derive the effective metrics governing photon propagation and study the resulting polarization-dependent shifts of the photon sphere. We compute the corresponding quasinormal modes in the eikonal limit and analyze their polarization dependence. We further investigate gravitational lensing, focusing on polarization-dependent corrections to the deflection angle in both weak- and strong-field regimes. In the strong-deflection regime, we find that even perturbatively small EFT corrections modify the coefficient of the logarithmically divergent part of the deflection angle, resulting in a potentially observable difference from the uncorrected case. This suggests that strong gravitational lensing may provide a sensitive probe of small higher-curvature corrections. While extracting EFT information directly from QNM frequencies is more subtle, QNMs may provide complementary information to gravitational lensing in future studies. Our results establish a framework for probing higher-curvature effects through polarization-dependent strong-field observables.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2606.19773",
  "author_total": 1,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Takamasa Kanai"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/8cbm7bnb88j62.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2606.19773",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "8cbm7bnb88j62",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.19773",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "LicenseRef-arXiv-nonexclusive-1.0",
  "licence_label": "arXiv licence",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "gr-qc"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "hep-th"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "3106|Black Holes and Theoretical Physics"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7165367495",
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2606.19773",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-20",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/8cbm7bnb88j62.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:34:04Z",
      "native_id": "2606.19773",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.19773"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:gr-qc",
      "subfield": "gravitation"
    },
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:hep-th",
      "subfield": "high-energy"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Polarization-Dependent Photon Propagation, Quasinormal Modes, and Gravitational Lensing in Higher-Curvature Effective Theories",
  "title_text": "Polarization-Dependent Photon Propagation, Quasinormal Modes, and Gravitational Lensing in Higher-Curvature Effective Theories",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:34:04Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/8cbm7bnb88j62",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}