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GR: Gravitation und Relativitätstheorie

GR 11: Grundlegende Probleme und allgemeiner Formalismus

GR 11.2: Fachvortrag

Mittwoch, 28. März 2001, 16:45–17:00, VII

The Fresnel equation in linear electrodynamics — •Guillermo Rubilar — Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität zu Köln.

The Fresnel equation governing the propagation of electromagnetic waves for the most general linear constitutive law is derived. The wave normals are found to lie, in general, on a fourth order surface. The general expression of the corresponding ‘fourth order optical metric’ is given in terms of the constitutive coefficients.

When the constitutive coefficients satisfy the so-called reciprocity or closure relation, the fourth order surface reduces to the familiar second order light cone structure, providing an alternative derivation of the conformal metric from the constitutive law.

Particular cases of this general framework include: propagation on a riemmanian space, phenomenological description of deviations from the vacuum constitutive law of GR interpreted as violations of the equivalence principle, birefringence, etc.

Reference: Phys. Rev. D 62 (2000) 044050; E.J. Post, ‘Formal structure of electromagnetics’ North Holland (1997).