Electromagnetic Duality Symmetry and Helicity Conservation for the Macroscopic Maxwell’s Equations
Open accessAbstract
In this Letter, we show that the electromagnetic duality symmetry, broken in the microscopic Maxwell's equations by the presence of charges, can be restored for the macroscopic Maxwell's equations. The restoration of this symmetry is shown to be independent of the geometry of the problem. These results provide a tool for the study of light-matter interactions within the framework of symmetries and conservation laws. We illustrate its use by determining the helicity content of the natural modes of structures possessing spatial inversion symmetries and by elucidating the root causes for some surprising effects in the scattering off magnetic spheres.
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The rotational symmetry of Maxwell's equations under duality rotation is associated with the conservation of the helicity of light.
“It is this rotational symmetry that is associated with the conservation of the helicity of light, a connection made by Calkin [17] which ourselves and others have pursued elsewhere within the context of Noether's theorem [15, 30].”
From Optical helicity of interfering waves (2014) · cites this paper as [15]
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References 43 · Cited by 195
Research works printed but not linked: 3
- P. A. M. Dirac. The theory of magnetic poles. Phys. Rev., 74(7):817-830, October 1948.
- Iwo Bialynicki-Birula. V photon wave function. In E. Wolf, editor, Progress in Optics, volume Volume 36, pages 245-294. Elsevier, 1996.
- Fu Min Huang, Tsung Sheng Kao, Vassili A. Fedotov, Yifang Chen, and Nikolay I. Zheludev. Nanohole array as a lens. Nano Letters, 8(8):2469-2472, 2008.
- Authors
- Fernandez-Corbaton, I., Zambrana-Puyalto, X., Tischler, N., Vidal, X., Juan, M. L., & Molina-Terriza, G.
- Affiliations
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems (AU)
- Macquarie University (AU)
- Venue
- Physical Review Letters
- Publisher
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Published
- 2013-08-07
- Volume
- 111
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 060401-060401
- ISSN
- 0031-9007 (ISSN-L)
- 1079-7114
- OpenAlex
- W1568596665
- Cited by
- 195
- References
- 43
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 19 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 23 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 8
- FWCI
- 7.21
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Physical Review Letters (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- TECNALIA Publications (Fundación TECNALIA Research & Innovation) (submittedVersion, public-domain)
- Griffith Research Online (submittedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Funders
- Australian Research Council (DP110103697)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Quantum and Classical Electrodynamics
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials › Metamaterials and Metasurfaces Applications
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Plasmonic and Surface Plasmon Research
- Keywords
- helicity conservation, symmetry restoration, light-matter interaction, inversion symmetry, natural modes, magnetic spheres, scattering, conservation laws
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