2002/07/31 by C. Broadbent, Curtis J. Broadbent, G. Hovhannisyan +11
Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #FOS: Physical sciences #General Physics (physics.gen-ph) #Optics (physics.optics) #Quantum optics and atomic interactions #Random lasers and scattering media #physics.gen-ph #physics.optics
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.physics/0207127
13 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication in AMEREM 2002 conference proceedings
arxiv created 2002/07/31 · openalex publication_date 2002/07/31 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We solve the problem addressed by Landau and Lifshitz in 1958, and Oughstun and Sherman of determining the dynamical losses in a purely dissipative dielectric media. We develop concrete notions of macroscopic free energy and losses as energy which is reversible and irreversible, respectively, in the medium-field interaction. We define the reversible and irreversible energies and outline the derivation of said quantities. We examine the implications of our definition and it's auxiliary quantity, the reversal field, for the single Lorentz oscillator model of a medium. We show that for this model the reversible energy reduces to the sum of the kinetic and potential energy, as found by Loudon. We note that in general, the sum of the kinetic and potential energies is greater than the reversible energy. We show that the reversible and irreversible energy have the characteristics classically defining free energy and heat.