Dielectric media considered as vacuum with sources

Abstract

Conventional textbook treatments on electromagnetic wave propagation consider the induced charge and current densities as "bound", and therefore absorb them into a refractive index. In principle it must also be possible to treat the medium as vacuum, but with explicit charge and current densities. This gives a more direct, physical description. However, since the induced waves propagate in vacuum in this picture, it is not straightforward to realize that the wavelength becomes different compared to that in vacuum. We provide an explanation, and also associated time-domain simulations. As an extra bonus the results turn out to illuminate the behavior of metamaterials.