title: Relativistic Lagrangian model of a nematic liquid crystal interacting with an electromagnetic field.
abstract: We develop a relativistic variational model for a nematic liquid crystal interacting with an electromagnetic field. The constitutive relation for a general anisotropic uniaxial diamagnetic and dielectric medium is analyzed. We discuss light wave propagation in this moving uniaxial medium, for which the corresponding optical metrics are identified explicitly. A Lagrangian for the coupled system of a nematic liquid crystal and the electromagnetic field is constructed, from which a complete set of equations of motion for the system is derived. The canonical energy-momentum and spin tensors are systematically obtained. We compare our results with those within the nonrelativistic models. As an application of our general formalism, we discuss the so-called Abraham-Minkowski controversy on the momentum of light in a medium.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Cologne, 50923 Köln, Germany. yo@thp.uni-koeln.de
authors.forename: Yuri N
authors.initials: YN
authors.lastname: Obukhov
authors.forename: Tomás
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ramos
authors.forename: Guillermo F
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Rubilar