Propagation of Electromagnetic Waves in Linear Media and Pseudo-Hermiticity

Abstract

We express the electromagnetic field propagating in an arbitrary time-independent non-dispersive medium in terms of an operator that turns out to be pseudo-Hermitian for Hermitian dielectric and magnetic permeability tensors Epsilon and Mu. We exploit this property to determine the propagating field. In particular, we obtain an explicit expression for a planar field in an isotropic medium with Epsilon and Mu varying along the direction of the propagation. We also study the scattering of plane waves due to a localized inhomogeneity.