English

On the boundary-value problems and the validity of the Post constraint in modern electromagnetism

Classical Physics 2007-07-10 v1 Optics

Abstract

We recall that the theory of electromagnetism consists of three building blocks: (a) the inhomogeneous Maxwell equations for the electric and magnetic excitations (D,H)(D,H) (which reflects charge conservation), (b) the homogeneous Maxwell equations for the electric and magnetic field strengths (E,B)(E,B) (which reflects flux conservation), and (c) the constitutive relation between (D,H)(D,H) and (E,B)(E,B). In the recent paper \cite{Lakhtakia1}, Lakhtakia proposed to change the standard boundary conditions in electrodynamics in order to exclude certain constitutive parameters. We show that this is inadmissible both from the macroscopic and the microscopic points of view.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0707.1112,
  title  = {On the boundary-value problems and the validity of the Post constraint in modern electromagnetism},
  author = {Yuri N. Obukhov and Friedrich W. Hehl},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0707.1112},
  year   = {2007}
}

Comments

Revtex, 7 pages, no figures