Relativistic Lagrangian model of a nematic liquid crystal interacting with an electromagnetic field
Abstract
We develop a relativistic variational model for a nematic liquid crystal interacting with an electro- magnetic field. The constitutive relation for a general anisotropic uniaxial diamagnetic and dielectric medium is analyzed. We discuss light wave propagation in this moving uniaxial medium, for which the corresponding optical metrics are identified explicitly. A Lagrangian for the coupled system of a nematic liquid crystal and the electromagnetic field is constructed, from which a complete set of equations of motion for the system is derived. The canonical energy-momentum and spin tensors are systematically obtained. We compare our results with those within the non-relativistic models. As an application of our general formalism, we discuss the so-called Abraham-Minkowski controversy on the momentum of light in a medium.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1203.3122,
title = {Relativistic Lagrangian model of a nematic liquid crystal interacting with an electromagnetic field},
author = {Yuri N. Obukhov and Tomas Ramos and Guillermo F. Rubilar},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1203.3122},
year = {2012}
}
Comments
20 pages, Revtex, no figures