A solvable microscopic model for the propagation of light in a dielectric medium

Abstract

Maxwell's equations resemble Schr\"odinger's equation in that an exact solution for a well-defined model delivers all physically relevant details. Solvable microscopic electrodynamic models, however, are rare. An exception is the discrete dipole approximation (DDA), which models a medium as a lattice of point dipoles. We use a regularized DDA variant to examine mechanical and electromagnetic momentum of light signals in such a medium in detail. The results agree in essential parts with that of the theory of R. Peierls from 1976.