Taking Inspiration from Quantum-Wave Analogies --- Recent Results for Photonic Crystals

2018/04/04 by Lein, Max
#35P99 #35Q60 #35Q61 #78A48 #81Q10 #FOS: Physical sciences #Mathematical Physics (math-ph)

paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1804.01234

Abstract

Similarities between quantum systems and analogous systems for classical waves have been used to great effect in the physics community, be it to gain an intuition for quantum systems or to anticipate novel phenomena in classical waves. This proceeding reviews recent advances in putting these quantum-wave analogies on a mathematically rigorous foundation for classical electromagnetism. Not only has this Schrödinger formalism of electromagnetism led to new, interesting mathematical problems for so-called Maxwell-type operators, it has also improved the understanding of the physics of topological phenomena in electromagnetic media. For example, it enabled us to classify electromagnetic media by their material symmetries, and explained why "fermionic time-reversal symmetries" --- that were conjectured to exist in the physics literature --- are in fact forbidden.

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