The Optical HMW Geometric Phase and the Abraham Minkowski Controversy

Abstract

The question of the correct formulation for the momentum of light in a dielectric medium is typically referred to as the ``Abraham-Minkowski controversy". Experiments conducted to elucidate the issue have primarily focused on measuring forces and momentum transfers. In this work, we propose an interferometric approach using matter waves to measure the light-induced version of the He-McKellar-Wilkens (optical HMW) phase for a neutral atomic dipole in dynamical electromagnetic fields. Beginning from the action principle, we show that this geometric phase is directly related via the Euler-Lagrange equations of motion to the Abraham force lying at the heart of the controversy.