The helicity of a photon traversing a magnetized plasma can flip when the $B$ field along the trajectory slowly reverses. Broderick and Blandford have recently shown that this intriguing effect can profoundly change the usual Faraday effect for radio waves. We study this phenomenon in a formalism analogous to neutrino flavor oscillations: the evolution is governed by a Schrödinger equation for a two-level system consisting of the two photon helicities. Our treatment allows for a transparent physical understanding of this system and its dynamics. In particular, it allows us to investigate the nature of transitions at intermediate adiabaticities.

• Received 23 June 2010

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.82.123003