Determination of an electromagnetic medium from the Fresnel surface

DOI10.1088/1751-8113/45/40/405203MaRDI QIDQ3168486zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Matias F. Dahl

Publication date 31 October 2012

Published in Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1103.3118

zbMATH Keywords

Maxwell's equationsFresnel surfaceantisymmetric tensorelectromagnetic medium

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Global differential geometry of Lorentz manifolds, manifolds with indefinite metrics (53C50) Foundations in optics and electromagnetic theory (78A02) Electromagnetic theory (general) (78A25) Waves and radiation in optics and electromagnetic theory (78A40) Electromagnetic fields in general relativity and gravitational theory (83C50) Geometric optics (78A05)

Abstract: We study Maxwell's equations on a 4-manifold where the electromagnetic medium is described by an antisymmetric $2choose2$-tensor $kappa$. In this setting, the Tamm-Rubilar tensor density determines a polynomial surface of fourth order in each cotangent space. This surface is called the Fresnel surface and acts as a generalisation of the light-cone determined by a Lorentz metric; the Fresnel surface parameterises electromagnetic wave-speed as a function of direction. Favaro and Bergamin have recently proven that if $kappa$ has only a principal part and if the Fresnel surface of $kappa$ coincides with the light cone for a Lorentz metric $g$, then $kappa$ is proportional to the Hodge star operator of $g$. That is, under additional assumptions, the Fresnel surface of $kappa$ determines the conformal class of $kappa$. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, we provide a new proof of this result using Gr"obner bases. Second, we describe a number of cases where the Fresnel surface does not determine the conformal class of the original $2choose2$-tensor $kappa$. For example, if $kappa$ is invertible we show that $kappa$ and $kapp{a}^{-1}$ have the same Fresnel surfaces.

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