On the self-induced charge currents in electromagnetic materials and its effects in the torsion balance experiment

Abstract

We concern ourselves with the self-induced charge currents in electromagnetic materials and some related topics on its effects in the present paper. The contribution of self-induced charge currents of metamaterial media to photon effective rest mass is briefly discussed. We concentrate primarily on the torque, which is caused by the interaction of self-induced charge currents in dilute plasma with interstellar magnetic fields, acting on the torsion balance in the torsion balance experiment. It is shown by our evaluation that the muons and alpha-particles in secondary cosmic rays will contribute an effective rest mass about 10^{-54} Kg to the photon, which is compared to the newly obtained upper limit on photon rest mass in Luo's rotating torsion balance experiment.