The relativistic electron gas: a candidate for nature's left-handed material

TL;DR

This paper calculates the electromagnetic response of a relativistic electron gas, showing it can exhibit negative permittivity and permeability, making it a natural candidate for a negative index of refraction or metamaterial.

Contribution

It provides a quantum electrodynamics-based analysis of relativistic electron gases, revealing conditions under which they behave as negative index materials.

Findings

Relativistic electron gas can have both negative permittivity and permeability.

Results generalize nonrelativistic Lindhard formula to relativistic regimes.

Potential applications in plasma physics and astrophysics.

Abstract

The electric permittivities and magnetic permeabilities for a relativistic electron gas are calculated from quantum electrodynamics at finite temperature and density as functions of temperature, chemical potential, frequency, and wavevector. The polarization and the magnetization depend linearly on both electric and magnetic fields, and are the sum of a zero-temperature and zero-density vacuum part with a temperature- and chemical potential-dependent medium part. Analytic calculations lead to generalized expressions that depend on three scalar functions. In the nonrelativistic limit, results reproduce the Lindhard formula. In the relativistic case, and in the long wavelength limit, we obtain: i) for $\omega=0$, generalized susceptibilities that reduce to known nonrelativistic limits; ii) for $\omega \neq 0$, Drude-type responses at zero and at high temperatures. The latter implies that one may have both $\epsilon$ and $\mu$ simultaneously negative, a behavior characteristic of metamaterials. This unambiguously indicates that the relativistic electron plasma is one of nature's candidates for the realization of a negative index of refraction system. Moreover, Maxwell's equations in the medium yield the dispersion relation and the index of refraction of the electron plasma. Present results should be relevant for plasma physics, astrophysical observations, synchrotrons, and other environments with fast moving electrons.