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Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 070401 (2010) [4 pages]

Resolution of the Abraham-Minkowski Dilemma

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Stephen M. Barnett
Department of Physics, SUPA, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G4 0NG, United Kingdom

Received 7 October 2009; published 17 February 2010

The dilemma of identifying the correct form for the momentum of light in a medium has run for a century and has been informed by many distinguished contributions, both theoretical and experimental. We show that both the Abraham and Minkowski forms of the momentum density are correct, with the former being the kinetic momentum and the latter the canonical momentum. This identification allows us to explain why the experiments supporting each of the rival momenta gave the results that they did. The inclusion of dispersion and absorption provides an interesting subtlety, but does not change our conclusion.

© 2010 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.070401
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.070401
PACS:
03.50.De, 42.50.Nn, 42.50.Wk