Radiation Pressure, Energy-Momentum Tensors
and the Abraham-Minkowski Controversy
C. Baxter and Rodney Loudon
Submitted to Physical Review A, March 2008.
We demonstrate that the conservation equations involving the spatial components of the electromagnetic
(Maxwell), Abraham, Minkowski and Einstein-Laub tensors are equivalent statements
of Maxwell's equations applied to a homogeneous, linear and dispersionless material medium, and
that the Abraham, Minkowski and Einstein-Laub tensors are defined only in such a medium.
The Abraham-Minkowski controversy, which is usually expressed as a question as to whether the
"correct" momentum density for an electromagnetic field in a material medium is the Abraham
or Minkowski
,
is spurious. The momenta 
,
are
in principle both observable by appropriate measurements. We distinguish between stress and
energy-momentum tensors, and confirm our results by means of the Hamilton derivative procedure.
