Non-Abelian evolution of electromagnetic waves in a weakly anisotropic inhomogeneous medium

A theory of electromagnetic wave propagation in a weakly anisotropic smoothly inhomogeneous medium is developed, based on the quantum-mechanical diagonalization procedure applied to Maxwell equations. The equations of motion for the translational (ray) and intrinsic (polarization) degrees of freedom...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Physical review. A, Atomic, molecular, and optical physics Vol. 75; no. 5
Main Authors:	Bliokh, K. Yu, Frolov, D. Yu, Kravtsov, Yu. A.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	United States 29-05-2007
Subjects:	ANISOTROPY BIREFRINGENCE CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS CONVERSION DEGREES OF FREEDOM ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION ELECTRONS EQUATIONS OF MOTION MAXWELL EQUATIONS OSCILLATIONS PERIODICITY PHOTONS POLARIZATION QUANTUM MECHANICS SPIN ZITTERBEWEGUNG
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Summary:	A theory of electromagnetic wave propagation in a weakly anisotropic smoothly inhomogeneous medium is developed, based on the quantum-mechanical diagonalization procedure applied to Maxwell equations. The equations of motion for the translational (ray) and intrinsic (polarization) degrees of freedom are derived ab initio. The ray equations take into account the optical Magnus effect (spin Hall effect of photons) as well as trajectory variations owing to the medium anisotropy. Polarization evolution is described by the precession equation for the Stokes vector. In the generic case, the evolution of wave turns out to be non-Abelian: it is accompanied by mutual conversion of the normal modes and periodic oscillations of the ray trajectories analogous to electron zitterbewegung. The general theory is applied to examples of wave evolution in media with circular and linear birefringence.
ISSN:	1050-2947 1094-1622
DOI:	10.1103/PhysRevA.75.053821