On light propagation in premetric electrodynamics: the covariant dispersion relation

DOI10.1088/1751-8113/42/47/475402zbMATH Open1196.83015arXiv0903.5520OpenAlexW3101944882MaRDI QIDQ3402131FDOQ3402131

Authors: Yakov Itin 

Publication date: 2 February 2010

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

Abstract: The premetric approach to electrodynamics provides a unified description of a wide class of electromagnetic phenomena. In particular, it involves axion, dilaton and skewon modifications of the classical electrodynamics. This formalism emerges also when the non-minimal coupling between the electromagnetic tensor and the torsion of Einstein-Cartan gravity is considered. Moreover, the premetric formalism can serve as a general covariant background of the electromagnetic properties of anisotropic media. In the current paper, we study wave propagation in the premetric electrodynamics. We derive a system of characteristic equations corresponded to premetric generalization of the Maxwell equation. This singular system is characterized by the adjoint matrix which turns to be of a very special form -- proportional to a scalar quartic factor. We prove that a necessary condition for existence a non-trivial solution of the characteristic system is expressed by a unique scalar dispersion relation. In the tangential (momentum) space, it determines a fourth order light hypersurface which replaces the ordinary light cone of the standard Maxwell theory. We derive an explicit form of the covariant dispersion relation and establish it'salgebraic and physical origin.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/0903.5520

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zbMATH Keywords

electrodynamicsgeometrical opticsEinstein-Cartan gravitycovariant dispersion relationMaxwell's equations: premetric approachsemi-covariant approximation

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Waves and radiation in optics and electromagnetic theory (78A40) Einstein's equations (general structure, canonical formalism, Cauchy problems) (83C05) Einstein-Maxwell equations (83C22) Electromagnetic fields in general relativity and gravitational theory (83C50) Relativistic gravitational theories other than Einstein's, including asymmetric field theories (83D05)

Cited In (16)

• LIGHT PROPAGATION IN GENERALLY COVARIANT ELECTRODYNAMICS AND THE FRESNEL EQUATION
• Characterisation and representation of non-dissipative electromagnetic medium with two Lorentz null cones
• The non-birefringent limit of all linear, skewonless media and its unique light-cone structure
• Light propagation in ( 2+1 )-dimensional electrodynamics: the case of nonlinear constitutive laws
• On the hyperbolicity of Maxwell's equations with a local constitutive law
• GENERALLY COVARIANT FRESNEL EQUATION AND THE EMERGENCE OF THE LIGHT CONE STRUCTURE IN LINEAR PRE-METRIC ELECTRODYNAMICS
• Covariant jump conditions in electromagnetism
• Spacetime structure and asymmetric metric from the premetric formulation of electromagnetism
• Dilaton field and cosmic wave propagation
• Lorentz and diffeomorphism violations in linearized gravity
• The constitutive tensor of linear elasticity: Its decompositions, Cauchy relations, null Lagrangians, and wave propagation
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• Non-minimal Einstein-Maxwell theory: the Fresnel equation and the Petrov classification of a trace-free susceptibility tensor
• A generalized photon propagator
• \(\epsilon^{ij}\) Dispersion relation for electromagnetic waves in anisotropic media
• Wave propagation in axion electrodynamics

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