On the origin dependence of multipole moments in electromagnetism

dc.creatorDe Visschere, Patrick
dc.date2006-04-28
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T07:11:43Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T07:11:43Z
dc.descriptionThe 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.
dc.description14 pages, 0 figures
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0604230
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0604230
dc.identifierJ. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 39 (2006) pp. 4278-4283
dc.identifierdoi:10.1088/0022-3727/39/19/022
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/111865
dc.subjectOptics
dc.titleOn the origin dependence of multipole moments in electromagnetism
dc.typetext

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