Electrodynamics of moving magnetoelectric media: variational approach

TL;DR

This paper develops a variational approach to analyze the electrodynamics of moving magnetoelectric media, enabling a better understanding of effects like Feigel's prediction and reinterpreting past experiments on light pressure.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive variational framework for moving dielectric and magnetic media with magnetoelectric properties, advancing theoretical analysis of electromagnetic effects in such media.

Findings

Reanalysis of old light pressure experiments within the new framework

Derivation of energy-momentum tensors for moving magnetoelectric media

Clarification of wave propagation and mechanical quantities in these media

Abstract

Recently, Feigel has predicted a new effect in magnetoelectric media. The theoretical evaluation of this effect requires a careful analysis of a dynamics of the moving magnetoelectric medium and, in particular, the derivation of the energy-momentum of the electromagnetic field in such a medium. Then, one can proceed with the study of the wave propagation in this medium and derive the mechanical quantities such as the energy, the momentum, and their fluxes and the corresponding forces. In this paper, we develop a consistent general-relativistic variational approach to the moving dielectric and magnetic medium with and without magnetoelectric properties. The old experiments in which the light pressure was measured in fluids are reanalysed in our new framework.