https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-016-4146-1
Regular Article - Theoretical Physics
model for electrodynamics in dielectric media: exact quantisation in the Heisenberg representation
1
Dipartimento di Matematica, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo 32, 20133, Milano, Italy
2
INdAM-GNFM, Milano, Italy
3
Department of Science and High Technology, Università dell’Insubria, Via Valleggio 11, 22100, Como, Italy
4
INFN sezione di Milano, via Celoria 16, 20133, Milano, Italy
5
Dipartimento di Matematica, Università “La Sapienza”, Piazzale A. Moro 2, 00185, Roma, Italy
* e-mail: f.dallapiazza@gmail.com
Received:
6
April
2016
Accepted:
17
May
2016
Published online:
2
June
2016
We investigate the quantisation in the Heisenberg representation of a model which represents a simplification of the Hopfield model for dielectric media, where the electromagnetic field is replaced by a scalar field and the role of the polarisation field is played by a further scalar field
. The model, which is quadratic in the fields, is still characterised by a non-trivial physical content, as the physical particles correspond to the polaritons of the standard Hopfield model of condensed matter physics. Causality is also taken into account and a discussion of the standard interaction representation is also considered.
© The Author(s), 2016