Optical metrics and birefringence of anisotropic media

TL;DR

This paper explores the mathematical structure of optical metrics and birefringence in anisotropic media, linking electromagnetic response tensors to internal geometric frameworks, especially under uniaxial symmetry.

Contribution

It introduces a tensor-based representation of optical metrics in anisotropic media, connecting electromagnetic properties with an underlying internal geometry.

Findings

Optical metrics derived from material tensors explain birefringence.

Representation links electromagnetic response to internal geometric structures.

Applicable to uniaxial symmetry in anisotropic media.

Abstract

The material tensor of linear response in electrodynamics is constructed out of products of two symmetric second rank tensor fields which in the approximation of geometrical optics and for uniaxial symmetry reduce to "optical" metrics, describing the phenomenon of birefringence. This representation is interpreted in the context of an underlying internal geometrical structure according to which the symmetric tensor fields are vectorial elements of an associated two-dimensional space.