title: Acoustic energy and momentum in a moving medium
abstract: By exploiting the mathematical analogy between the propagation of sound in a nonhomogeneous potential flow and the propagation of a scalar field in curved space-time, various wave "energy" and wave "momentum" conservation laws are established in a systematic manner. In particular, the acoustic energy conservation law due to Blokhintsev appears as the result of the conservation of a mixed covariant and contravariant energy-momentum tensor, while the exchange of relative energy between the wave and mean flow, first noted by Longuet-Higgins and Stewart in the context of ocean waves, appears as the covariant conservation of the doubly contravariant form of the same energy-momentum tensor.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Illinois, 1110 West Green Street, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stone