TY - JOUR
T1 - Lorentz invariance of absorption and extinction cross sections of a uniformly moving object
AU - Garner, Timothy J.
AU - Lakhtakia, Akhlesh
AU - Breakall, James K.
AU - Bohren, Craig F.
N1 - Funding Information:
T.J.G. was supported by a Graduate Excellence Fellowship from the College of Engineering, Pennsylvania State University. A.L. is grateful for the support of the Charles Godfrey Binder Endowment at Pennsylvania State University.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 American Physical Society.
PY - 2017/11/20
Y1 - 2017/11/20
N2 - The energy absorption and energy extinction cross sections of an object in uniform translational motion in free space are Lorentz invariant, but the total energy scattering cross section is not. Indeed, the forward-scattering theorem holds true for comoving observers but not for other inertial observers. If a pulsed plane wave with finite energy density is incident upon an object, the energies scattered, absorbed, and removed from the incident signal by the object are finite. The difference between the energy extinction cross section and the sum of the total energy scattering and energy absorption cross sections for a non-comoving inertial observer can be either negative or positive, depending on the object's velocity, shape, size, and composition. Calculations for a uniformly translating, solid, homogeneous sphere show that all three cross sections go to zero as the sphere recedes directly from the source of the incident signal at speeds approaching c, whether the material is a plasmonic metal (e.g., silver) or simply a dissipative dielectric material (e.g., silicon carbide).
AB - The energy absorption and energy extinction cross sections of an object in uniform translational motion in free space are Lorentz invariant, but the total energy scattering cross section is not. Indeed, the forward-scattering theorem holds true for comoving observers but not for other inertial observers. If a pulsed plane wave with finite energy density is incident upon an object, the energies scattered, absorbed, and removed from the incident signal by the object are finite. The difference between the energy extinction cross section and the sum of the total energy scattering and energy absorption cross sections for a non-comoving inertial observer can be either negative or positive, depending on the object's velocity, shape, size, and composition. Calculations for a uniformly translating, solid, homogeneous sphere show that all three cross sections go to zero as the sphere recedes directly from the source of the incident signal at speeds approaching c, whether the material is a plasmonic metal (e.g., silver) or simply a dissipative dielectric material (e.g., silicon carbide).
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U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevA.96.053839
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevA.96.053839
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85036624733
SN - 2469-9926
VL - 96
JO - Physical Review A
JF - Physical Review A
IS - 5
M1 - 053839
ER -