Thursday, March 15, 2012

1203.3122 (Yuri N. Obukhov et al.)

Relativistic Lagrangian model of a nematic liquid crystal    [PDF]

Yuri N. Obukhov, Tomas Ramos, Guillermo F. Rubilar
We develop a relativistic variational model for a nematic liquid crystal interacting with the electromagnetic field. The constitutive relation for an 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. We derive a complete set of equations of motion for the system. 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.
View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1203.3122

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