Lett, P.
and Wang, L.
(2004),
Abraham's Force on a Highly Dispersive Medium, World Scientific Publishing Company, Hackensack, NJ, [online], https://doi.org/10.1142/9789812703002_0054
(Accessed May 9, 2025)
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Abraham's Force on a Highly Dispersive Medium
Published
Author(s)
, L Wang
Abstract
We consider the radiation force on highly dispersive media. In doing so we reconsider an experiment proposed to measure the Abraham force term in the stress-energy tensor at optical frequencies by measuring the displacement of a transparent dielectric caused by a light pulse passing through it. We demonstrate that, using a cold atomic vapor with a large normal dispersion as the sample medium, such an experiment should now be feasible. We also show that this radiation force can be measured for a light pulse in a highly anomalously dispersive medium, where the group velocity exceeds c. This leads to the non-intuitive result that the sample recoil changes direction.Citation
Laser Spectroscopy
Publisher Info
World Scientific Publishing Company, Hackensack, NJ
Pub Type
Books
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Keywords
Abraham's force, anomalous dispersion, Bose-Einstein condensation, electromagnetic theory, laser cooling, slow light, spectroscopy
Citation
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Created February 2, 2004, Updated November 10, 2018