Fermat Principle for spinning light

Abstract

Mimicking the description of spinning particles in General Relativity, the Fermat Principle is extended to spinning photons. Linearization of the resulting Papapetrou-Souriau type equations yields the semiclassical model used recently to derive the ``Optical Hall Effect'' (alias the ``Optical Magnus Effect'') for polarized light.Comment: Final revised version, to appear in Phys. Rev. D (Rapid Communication). 5 pages, no figure