The Rotation of the Plane of Polarization in Moving Media

Abstract

In my „Versuch einer Theorie der electrischen und optischen Erscheinungen in bewegten Körpern” (Leiden, 1895)²) I examined the propagation of light in transparent bodies having a constant translation with velocity p, the aether being supposed to remain at rest, and tried to find, in how far optical phenomena may be affected by this motion. In the case of the rotation of the plane of polarization in optically active substances, I had to leave the question undecided. Indeed, the relation between the electric force E and the electric moment M, to which I was led by certain general principles (linear form of the equations, isotropy of structure and reversibility of the motions) does not only contain the coefficient j, which determines the rotation in the quiescent medium; there is besides a second coefficient k, which is multiplied by the velocity p, and whose ratio to j I could not determine, because I wished to refrain from special hypotheses as to the mechanism of the phenomenon.

Versl. Akad. Amsterdam. 10, 793, 1902. Proc. Acad. Amsterdam. 4, 669, 1902.