Is the debate over light momentum resolved?
FEB 26, 2010
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.024116
Science : What is the formula for the momentum of light zipping through a transparent material? That may sound like a question on a high-school physics quiz, but physicists have been debating the matter ever since two different formulas were proposed more than 100 years ago. Now Stephen Barnett, a theorist at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, U.K., says he has resolved the famed “Abraham-Minkowski dilemma.” Both formulas are correct, he says, but they denote different things and apply in different contexts.
© 2010 American Institute of Physics
