dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaOn the origin dependence of multipole moments in electromagnetism
| Authors | Patrick De Visschere |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | physics/0604230 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0604230 |
| DOI | 10.1088/0022-3727/39/19/022 |
| Journal | J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 39 (2006) pp. 4278-4283 |
Abstract
The standard description of material media in electromagnetism is based on multipoles. It is well known that these moments depend on the point of reference chosen, except for the lowest order. It is shown that this "origin dependence" is not unphysical as has been claimed in the literature but forms only part of the effect of moving the point of reference. When also the complementary part is taken into account then different points of reference lead to different but equivalent descriptions of the same physical reality. This is shown at the microscopic as well as at the macroscopic level. A similar interpretation is valid regarding the "origin dependence" of the reflection coefficients for reflection on a semi infinite medium. We show that the "transformation theory" which has been proposed to remedy this situation (and which is thus not needed) is unphysical since the transformation considered does not leave the boundary conditions invariant.
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"abstract": "The standard description of material media in electromagnetism is based on\nmultipoles. It is well known that these moments depend on the point of\nreference chosen, except for the lowest order. It is shown that this \"origin\ndependence\" is not unphysical as has been claimed in the literature but forms\nonly part of the effect of moving the point of reference. When also the\ncomplementary part is taken into account then different points of reference\nlead to different but equivalent descriptions of the same physical reality.\nThis is shown at the microscopic as well as at the macroscopic level. A similar\ninterpretation is valid regarding the \"origin dependence\" of the reflection\ncoefficients for reflection on a semi infinite medium. We show that the\n\"transformation theory\" which has been proposed to remedy this situation (and\nwhich is thus not needed) is unphysical since the transformation considered\ndoes not leave the boundary conditions invariant.",
"arxiv_id": "physics/0604230",
"authors": [
"Patrick De Visschere"
],
"categories": [
"physics.optics"
],
"doi": "10.1088/0022-3727/39/19/022",
"journal_ref": "J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 39 (2006) pp. 4278-4283",
"title": "On the origin dependence of multipole moments in electromagnetism",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0604230"
},
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