Optics of nonuniformly moving media

A moving dielectric appears to light as an effective gravitational field. A t low flow velocities the dielectric acts on light in the same way as a mag netic field acts on a charged matter wave. We develop in detail the geometr ical optics of moving dispersionless media. We derive a Hamiltonian and a L agrangian to describe ray propagation. We elucidate how the gravitational a nd the magnetic models of light propagation are related to each other. Fina lly, we study light propagation around a vortex flow. The vortex shows an o ptical Aharonov-Bohm effect at large distances from the core, and, at short er ranges, the vortex may resemble an optical black hole. [S1050-2947(99)01 912-5].